April 2003

DOWNY WOODPECKER - B016

(Picoides pubescens)

Oakland County, Michigan, USA - March

4.0/500mm + 2x – Sensia 100

[2]

Few meters far from a road, in February I saw a tree trunk with many holes, a typical place for  woodpeckers.

I began to put some nuts and other "food specialties" in the holes to attract the birds and after just 2 days all the food was already gone, so I installed my blind nearby and waited a couple days to let the birds become familiar with the new object.

The clear sunny day I decided to go into my old canvas blind to take some pictures, I saw that someone had been very interested in it: it was stolen.

A bit frustrated, I decided to sit by a tree at a certain distance to have at least the chance to watch to the birds with the binocular. I didn't have the time to actually sit down, that the first nuthatch was already feeding: it completely ignored me!

So I decided to put the 500mm on the tripod and step by step approached the woodpecker trunk.

This Downy Woodpecker was one of the most cooperative birds that day.

I spot measured the exposure on the bark and corrected by +1/3 stop.

Four hours and several rolls later I went back home completely frozen but really happy, even though my blind was gone.