Monday, August 29, 2016

Monday Pileated Woodpecker Blogging


Woodpecker #1 - Yosemite  2016

I was slowly walking towards the base of Lower Yosemite Fall in very dim early morning light, fooling around with iPhone videos, when this very large woodpecker made her appearance.

"The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent. It’s nearly the size of a crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest."

Whoa! Put the iPhone away, get out the Olympus with the 14-150mm lens. I had first spotted her off in the woods, but when I went to take the photo she had unaccountably vanished. But then I heard a rustle on the forest floor nearby and there she was, right at my feet. 

Photo taken at ISO 8000, focal length 80mm (160mm equiv.).

2 comments:

cleek said...

Sweet!

Mike Mundy said...

Thanks!

BTW, note that per my extensive Google research, male woodpecker has a full red crest, female has half-red.