Sunday, September 16, 2012

Searching For Woody

All right, All right. Enough of the the Nuthatches already! I'll admit that I have posted far too many of them. Sometimes I get a bit fixated on attempting to get a certain image and it almost turns into an obsession. The search for the perfect Nuthatch image has to come to an end. This morning I was out there again relentlessly pursuing the poor helpless little Nuthatches.I got some pretty good images too.So these will be the last I post for awhile. Sorry Nuthatch fans. As I was photographing Nuthatches I kept hearing a Pileated Woodpecker call from trees around the ranch house. I kept looking out of my little photoblind opening hoping to catch a glimpse of it. No luck.Then I heard it hammering on a tree fairly close to the blind. Now I just had to get out and take a look. I grabbed my camera and climbed out into the sunlight and sat there blinking trying to figure out where the darn thing was. I looked and looked and couldn't find it. I started walking slowly down the hill pausing to try and locate it. Finally I spotted it in an old Bay Laurel above the bunkhouse. I was shocked to see that it held in the same spot as most of the time they are gone in a flash. It wasn't in the best location as it was really dark and shady. But since I rarely get to photograph them I wasn't going to complain. It was hammering away on the rotted section of branch and picking out termites as it went. I tried a variety of different angles watching and photographing it for about five minutes before it flew off with its characteristic Kuk,kuk,kee keekeekee,ku,kuk territorial call.What a grand way to start the day. God's blessings to us all, chris

2 comments:

  1. Great woodpecker shots! We had one here one summer. Not very often do we see and hear one.

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  2. Thank you very much, Maggie Ann. Living in the forest I hear them fairly frequently. Seeing them though is fairly rare.

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