Posts in Category: woodpecker
Maine! More Red-bellied
Red-bellied Woodpecker: York County, Maine, USA, April 2024 — When you shoot at 15 frames per second you get a lot of different looks at even as active a bird as the Red-bellied Woodpecker. Here are 4 more, after yesterday’s tippy-toe pose. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Maine! Always on his toes
Red-bellied Woodpecker: York County, Maine, USA, April 2024 — The Red-bellied Woodpeckers are around our yard much more often this spring than in past years or past seasons. I am pretty sure they have established a primary territory just across the road from us in a little patch of forest. I hear them calling from there a lot. That is okay by me. I enjoy every encounter. This one came back to the old pines three times while I sat out in my camp chair waiting for birds, and just this once came down low enough for some good photos. And great afternoon light too. It was super active of course, as they always are, and I like the tiptoe pose here as it moved rapidly up the branch…but then Red-bellieds are always on their toes. OM System OM-1MKii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Cruickshank Woodpeckers
Red-bellied and Pileated Woodpeckers: Helen and Alan Cruickshank Sanctuary, Rockledge, Florida, USA, January 2024 — While looking for (and at) the Florida Scrub Jays that are the main attraction at the Cruickshank Sanctuary, I encountered a couple of woodpeckers. One was the very orange variety of the Red-bellied Woodpecker they have in Florida, and the other was a female Pileated. I am always happy to see either as they are both fairly elusive around my home in Maine…or I should say more elusive than our other local woodpeckers. I see them less often. The Red-belled was right against the sun and required a good amount of Exposure Compensation, and then some extra shadow control in post processing. OM System OM-1 with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Pieces of Pileated
Pileated Woodpecker: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — I was walking one of my favorite paths along the river marsh when I heard a loud strident call and this bird came swooping out of the woods and back in at eye-level. It was big, the size of a crow or a small hawk, and it was not until I saw the flash of its white underwings as it banked around that my mind engaged and I knew it for a Pileated Woodpecker. I forget how big a bird the Pileated is. This bird, as is common with woodpeckers, played hide and seek with me for the next half hour. Mostly it stayed fairly low in the trees, always on the back side of the trunk or behind a heavy tangle of branches. A few times it actually hid behind a branch, very intentionally putting and keeping the branch between us. I would loose it as it flew from tree to tree, and then have to listen carefully to find it, if not by its call, which it gave repeatedly, or by its loud drum, which it only did once, then by the constant low chatter it seemed to be making as it worked. Talking to itself (or maybe to me). I did manage a few shots of pieces of the bird, and a few awkward portraits. Most between obtruding branders or through heavy tangles. Still it was fun. Eventually it got tired of playing with me, and flew off all the way across the wide marsh and the river. OM System OM-1Mkii with 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Acorn at Miriam’s
Acorn Woodpecker: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — We drove up to the top of Buena Vista Mountain as it is named on the maps, or Cerro de la Muerte as it is commonly known, but the mountain top was shrouded in dense fog, hiding the vistas, so we returned to Savegre for a morning of photographing silky water in the stream below the hotel. Then for lunch we drove back up to Miriam’s Quetzals, a small family owned restaurant/coffee shop/gift shop half way back up to the Panam highway, perched on the side of the Savegre canyon, with a wonderful deck and feeding station which draws all the common birds at its cloud forest elevation, approaching 9000 feet. In the year since my last visit they have improved and enlarged the deck and it is an even better perch for photographing birds. Acorn Woodpeckers are among the dominant species, and though we can see them in the Western US, they are always a treat to see in the mountains of Costa Rica. The deck at Miriam’s provides close up views. OM System OM-1 with 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! You say hello, I say goodbye
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers: York County, Maine, USA, October 2023 — Coming and going. A (maybe) pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on a dead tree. You never know what you are going to catch when you point the camera up. I was, of course just trying for the perched bird, when the second bird flew in and startled it off the perch. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent (and cropped). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro.
Maine! Pileated Woodpecker preening
Pileated Woodpecker: York County, Maine, USA, October 2023 — This bird flew into a tall bare maple tree on the other side of the pond while I was looking for Great Blue Herons in the river. I don’t see Pileateds very often, though they certainly nest in the area, so I hustled (much as a 76 year old ever hustles) around the pond and under the tree on the off chance the bird would wait for me. Turns out it was busy having a preen and was able to get some shots…not ideal…silhouetted against the grey sky and from an odd angle…but still…you have to photograph what is in front of you…especially when it is a Pileated Woodpecker. Pileated, by the way, refers to the peaked cap on the head. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Plus 1.0 EV for the backlight. Processed in Pixelmator Pro.
Cinnamon Woodpecker
Cinnamon Woodpecker: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — Among the most frequent visitors in the canopy around the Canopy Tower is the Cinnamon Woodpecker. It was always in the area, and always visible from the observation deck, working the tree tops. During my 5 days at the Tower, we only saw females, but I am sure the males were around. In North America we are used to our woodpeckers in basic black and white, with a maybe a touch of red, so the Cinnamon is a striking bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm and 500mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. The photos were taken on two different mornings in differing light. ISO 2000 and 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1 and .7 EV exposure compensation.
Lineated Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker: Calla de Gambia, Golfito, Costa Rica — We had our second Lineated Woodpecker encounter, and our first close encounter, on Calla de Gambia as we were walking a short stretch looking for birds in the wet, almost marshy, fields. He was in the trees of the “living fence” that separated the fields from the road. If you don’t know about living fences…in the tropics if you cut a fence pole and stick it in the ground and string wire on it…it will root and grow, put out new branches, and turn into a tree in a surprisingly short time. Over the years, the trees in a living fence can get quite large…certainly big enough to attract a big woodpecker like the Lineated. As usual with close woodpecker encounters, this bird was busy keeping on the back-side of the tree from us most of the time, and the light was almost always behind it. They never make it easy for the photographer. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 and 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1.7 EV exposure compensation for the backlight.
Woodpeckers at Cope’s
Black-cheeked and Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers: Donde Cope, Gaupiles, Costa Rica — Black-cheeked Woodpeckers are everywhere in the Caribbean lowland rain forest where we spend the first several days of our yearly trip to Costa Rica, and we generally see both Black-cheeked and the more wide-spread, but less abundant (in my experience) Hoffmann’s at both Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Park, and at Cope’s tiny village sanctuary. These shots are from a few moments apart at Cope’s, but in very different light. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 541mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Black-cheeked, Equivalent ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Hoffmann’s, Equivalent ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.