I am in Columbus Ohio for the first annual Birding Optics and Gear Expo, organized by Bird Watcher Digest and Eagle Optics, at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center. The Audubon Center is beautiful multi-function building on the banks of the Scioto River, surrounded by Scioto Audubon Park, a reclaimed landfill and one of the birdiest acreages you are likely to find in any American city. It has riverfront, chunks of woodland, two large old oxbow ponds, open grasslands, and emergent thickets: ideal habit for a wide variety of birds. Yesterday, as we set up for the Expo, there were lots of birds working the feeders and lots of bird song in the air everywhere you went. Nice! And all within walking distance of the quaint, very gentrified, German Town section, and clear sight of the skyscrapers of downtown Columbus.

This female Downy Woodpecker was working the suet feeder on the river side of the building. I watched as she made a circuit from the feeder, up into the tree above close in to the trunk, working her way out branch by branch until she was over the feeder again, and then dropping down to feed. She made at least 10 circuits in the time I watched…perching on the same branches, or very close to it, on each go-round. I managed to get a few shots of her in the tree and several close-ups at the suet cage.

Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function). f6.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.