Got him!

[NV Whino]

(Or her.) The elusive pileated woodpecker. Going to town on a newly fallen pine. These are all shot with my point and shoot L830, on a tripod with telephoto.




A little fuzzy here. His (or her) head was moving pretty fast. The only way I got any shots at all was to put the setting on continuous shoot.


And the manzanita, she is a blooming.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Well done!

Just goes to show you--you want to capture some images, you have to keep at it.

And you did.

These are great!

[Scuba]

2. Great shots, Whino! Thanks!

[Adsos Letter]

3. Very nice!

I love that second one, his look says "Busted!"

Very nice bokeh (?) on these.

Is it normal for the manzanita to be blooming this early? We have outdoor fuchsia and bulbs that are blooming, and my wife thinks thios quite odd for January.

[NV Whino]

12. My narcissus are blooming, Which is standard

Seems a little early for Manzanita, and my fruit trees were budding out. Good thing I got them pruned today.

[Adsos Letter]

17. Yeah, that's one of the things this cast prevented

I have cherry, fig, persimmon, and loquat trees and none of them got pruned due to this dumb cast.

Same thing with my redbud, wisteria, and coral bark maple.

Ah, well. The doc said he would put me in a walking boot in a couple more weeks, so I hope to get to some of it then, although the buds having set is going to make it problematic.

My wife always accuses me of over trimming the wisteria so I may let that one go.

Really nice job on the pileated woodpecker.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

4. Remind me, please, is this the one that was thought to be extinct?

I assume whether it is or not, the find is still rare. And your photos leave no room for a misidentification. So, well done!

[Omaha Steve]

5. Nope, this is a common Pileated Woodpecker

Last edited Mon Jan 12, 2015, 07:11 PM - Edit history (1)

My initial reply was rushed because I was cooking. Marta got home. We ate dinner. Time to relax before tonight's big game.

Beautiful pix of a magnificent bird. They are shy and stay away from humans. Great job.

Here is a comparison of the Pileated and the Ivory-billed: http://www.ibwo.org/woodpecker_id.pdf

These are what you are thinking of.

Ivory-billed and some Imperial info: http://www.ibwo.org/index.php

This was lost to drug cartels in Mexico: http://blog.allaboutbirds.org/2011/10/26/see-the-only-known-images-of-the-lost-imperial-woodpecker-video/

We have 3 families outside our windows. Fontenelle Forest is on the other side of our back property line. It sounds just like the video below.

OS

[NV Whino]

13. Not extinct, but not plentiful

As far as I can tell, there are only a couple of pair in this area. Possibly only one pair.

They are, if you look at that tree, incredibly destructive. That's fine on dead trees, but not so much on your house.

[SoapBox]

6. Whoa...very cool.

[mnhtnbb]

7. Nice!

[gregcrawford]

8. It's a male

Females don't have a red crest. At least I know that to be true of Hairy and Downy woodpeckers. Probably true of Pileated as well.

[NV Whino]

15. Not sure about that

These guys hang out in pairs, and his friend was a red head, too.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. This is a male, but not for that reason.

The male has the red stripe on the side of the face, while the female has a black one. Both male and female do have a red crest. The male has the red crest go all the way forward to the beak, but the female's crest isn't as far forward.

[NV Whino]

18. Thanks

The female was around, but she flitted from tree to tree laughing at me. Never got a good view of her.

[Curmudgeoness]

19. If you are really lucky,

you will have them hollow out a nesting hole where you can get watch it. I was fortunate enough to have an apartment with a view of a Pileated Woodpecker nesting hole years ago, and I spent hours watching it. Well, maybe you won't be fortunate to have that view, since it will waste a lot of time.

[NV Whino]

20. That may be why he is working so diligently on that hole.

[CrispyQ]

9. Handsome bird!

Great shots!

Love the little upside-down bells on the manzanita.

[allan01]

10. ka dak akkkk!!!!!

[Auggie]

11. Beautiful

I love the way the monochromatic colors of the tree contrast with the red head and black body in the top photo.

[brer cat]

14. Really nice, NV Whino.

Thanks for sharing. I love woodpeckers!

[handmade34]

21. one of the thrills

of being out in the woods... good job! I delight in merely seeing the results of their work around here, and then when I get the genuine treat of seeing one, I feel very fortunate indeed

[oldandhappy]

22. Thank you very much.

Beautiful bird. I am amazed you got these shots. Numbers 2 so clear and number 3 so close. wow
I appreciate this post.

[Solly Mack]

23. Great shots!

Love them all!

The manzanita shot is gorgeous!

[NV Whino]

24. Thanks.