Big Reds

I'd never seen two of these big pileated woodpeckers this close together before. I saw one of these guys (they're both guys, actually, father & son, I'd guess) fly into a tree behind the local WalMart. I pulled over and grabbed the camera. As I got closer, I realized there were two in the tree eating some sort of fruit. I didn't get too much closer before one of them flew off into a nearby palm tree, but I watched the one eat for another ten minutes. That one, possibly the younger of the two, didn't seem to have any fear of me and my big camera.

Almost

I guess I need more practice. I'd hoped that I had gotten a decent picture of this huge pileated woodpecker flying by at Mom & Dad's place the other day, but it looks pretty poor. Would have been a great picture, though, flying along, screaming like he was. Maybe next time...

More Woody

I got a few nice shots of a small woodpecker last night as well. He scouted out a few dead trees over my head, then flew off. I guess they aren't quite dead enough to be host to the sorts of food he's looking for. It was nice of him to come out into the direct sunlight for a few minutes though. Made for some nice shots.

A Red-Headed Bird

I think I'm getting carried away with my little theme here, but this is another bird from Cockroach Bay Road. This is a little sapsucker, or woodpecker if you prefer. Pretty sure this isn't the only time I've shown you one of these.

Woody et. al.

I waited and waited and waited for this little woodpecker to give me a better view yesterday, but he never showed my anymore than what you see here. And this was about the only time he stuck his head out of the shadow behind the palm tree.

I thought it a little odd that I would see similar woodpeckers two days in a row, and so many miles apart. The one up top was near the St. Petersburg Yacht Basin, and these two were ganging up on a telephone pole in Robinson Preserve near Bradenton. One of these two seems to be exhibiting male pattern baldness, although I'm not certain he was the male.

At least the one with the nice read head was closer, so I got a slightly closer picture of him.

The New Camera, The Old Tree

OK, I did it. I ordered a new camera. After my Rebel XSi broke at the shuttle launch, I knew I needed to get something. Something bigger, better and in my hands. Fixing my camera is going to cost a few hundred dollars, but more urgently, it's going to take six weeks or so. With the holidays well inside that six week window, I couldn't wait. So I ordered a brand spanking new Canon 7D. This is the top of the line crop sensor camera from Canon, and they don't come much better than this. I just got in via UPS on Wednesday, and today was my first chance to take it outside and put it through it's paces. I have to carry the instruction manual around with it, because I don't know how to do many of the things I want to do yet, and with so many buttons, wheels and even a little joystick, it's hard to find things at a glance. I've still got my rented 100-400mm lens from the shuttle launch, and combined with this 18 megapixel sensor, I got some great picture of small birds from far away. You've seen the old tree behind my parent's house many times before, and I've probably brought you pictures of this very same kestrel before, but never this clear. I've cropped all of these picture down to almost 1:1, so click on them and see just how well this camera/lens combination works.

That old tree is home to not only the kestrel at top, but also this woodpecker and an occasional buzzard.


I didn't catch this hawk actually in the tree, but he did fly past in a big hurry. I managed to get this and one other shot of him in the air before he hid in the non-dead trees.

The Elusive Woody

While at my parents house this past Saturday, a pileated woodpecker flew by. I grabbed my camera and took off in chase. I never really got close, I'm afraid. The shots above and below on a scenic telephone pole were probably taken from over 100 feet away. Every time I got to a reasonable shooting distance, he'd squawk and take off in his erratic flight.


Second closest I got was here, where he was deep in the shadow beneath a large oak tree. I had to do a lot of processing to this shot to make it half presentable, so take it for what it's worth. This fellow is nearly a foot long, in case you've never seen one in the wild. They make a very distinctive noise, too, so you usually hear them well before you see them, if you see them at all.

Woody Woodpecker

I got really lucky today. For the first time, I managed to get some decent pictures of a woodpecker. And not a small one, either, a big red-headed pileated woodpecker. This fellow was probably a foot high. I followed him from tree to tree, hoping to get a clear shot, and I finally got some good pics once he lighted on an old dead pine in the back of the pasture. Cool, eh?