Today my walk was
stopped and delayed by 30 minutes while I came upon a very rare photo op of
pileated woodpeckers on our farm.
The sighting of a
pileated woodpecker has been a rare occurrence for me over the years, mainly
seen in flight through the woods, but today a wonderful pileated actually
seemed to pose.
The bird essentially alerted
me to his presence by his distinct call.
That call was coming from the top of a dead limb on what I have dubbed
‘the woodpecker tree’ due to previous and frequent observations of red-bellied
woodpeckers over many years there. Recently, I have seen several pileated
woodpeckers in that general area, but mostly in flight as in flying away from
me.
This morning was
different.
At first, I was not sure of the identification of the woodpecker because I was still too far away to make positive recognition. I walked closer to the tree being careful to take slow, deliberate steps. The dogs, Snowball and Buddy, shadowed at my heals. They have learned, for the most part, to follow my lead. Slowing my gait is an indication that I am interested in something and that they need to be quiet and still.
I took a few pictures
before moving steps closer. When I got
to a point where I felt I was still out of the danger zone for the woodpecker
to take flight, I stopped. Soon, a
second and a third pileated joined the first in that dead snag. Then, a flicker flew into the mix.
notice the flicker at the bottom of the photo - much smaller than the pileated yet a large bird compared to my most common birds in residence |
I consider the
flicker to be a large bird, averaging 12”, but his size was surely diminished
by the size of those pileated woodpeckers which are closer to19”. Having a tangible comparison really puts the
size of the birds in perspective.
I took over 50 photos
knowing that I would be lucky to come away with a small percentage of ‘good’
pictures. I was right.
I love watching the pileated woodpeckers as
they smoothly dip and rise in flight.
But, better yet, is
the opportunity I was wishing for all summer… to watch the pileated woodpeckers
up close and personal
from the ‘good seats’.
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