Saturday, June 26, 2010

Woodpecker






Since many former students are on my list I thought I would share that I officially retired from teaching yesterday after 29 years in the education system. I will miss working with the students at Mary Queen of Peace School, but because of my voice issues, I think it it time to leave. Of course, I will still be busy since I plan to concentrate on making and selling photographs.

Last evening as the sun was setting I saw a woodpecker on a nearby tree. Unlike a woodpecker looking for food and moving around a tree, this one appeared to be trying to dig out a large hole. There were pieces of the tree flying in all directions. In the third photo you can see small pieces of wood in the air behind the woodpecker.

Since the bird didn't fly away after 5 minutes, I walked to my house and returned with camera in hand. I made a few images, then started to move closer. The woodpecker then flew to another tree closer to me and started looking for food. Even though I was shooting through the trees and leaves, I was lucky enough to get a couple of nice shots with the reddish light of the setting sun illuminating the bird.

At first I thought it was a northern flicker but after checking a bird identification book I believe this may be a downy woodpecker.

1 comment:

Ralph Wessman said...

very accommodating woodpecker

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