Sunday, September 30, 2012

Pileated Woodpecker

We had a slower than expected day at the banding site so I headed over to Mead Garden to see if the same held true there. Pretty much. The usual Mead gang was there and reported that there was not a lot of activity at all.

Fortunately, I got easily distracted by a Pileated Woodpecker that flew in close to me. It was searching for food from tree to tree and let me get fairly close.

Pileated Woodpecker

Why move around to check the hole when you can just twist your neck all the way around?

Pileated Woodpecker

Over at another limb our bird finds a tasty grub. Yum!

Pileated Woodpecker

I love watching these big woodpeckers fly from spot to spot. There have been breeding pairs here for many years. This is the male as indicated by the red patch behind the lower mandible.

Pileated Woodpecker

I almost didn't get any good shots. Several Blue Jays were harassing the woodpecker every time they thought there was an easy snack to grab away.

Pileated Woodpecker

Now off to the rest of the Garden to see if there are any more fun finds. Bet I can find a couple despite the quiet.

3 comments:

John Shinal said...

Impressive pix of the Pileated Woodpeckers. I saw an earlier blog post where you mention birds flapping warily before a photo - I discovered dogs see the Infra-Red 'focus assist' beam my cameras use. Disabling that and pre-focusing made me a lot more stealthy and able to catch subjects more naturally.

John Shinal said...

Impressive pix of the Pileated Woodpeckers. I saw an earlier blog post where you mention birds flapping warily before a photo - I discovered dogs see the Infra-Red 'focus assist' beam my cameras use. Disabling that and pre-focusing made me a lot more stealthy and able to catch subjects more naturally.

J. Andrew Boyle said...

Thanks, John.

Yep, the new focus beams are part of the problem. I also believe the birds hear the whine of the cameras as they prepare to fire. If I use my older digital they don't flinch.

Ah, technology...