Pileated, Sapsuckers and other Woodpeckers

I'll say the same, Ron - this one's for you :) :). It was fun bumping into you for the very first time down in the park this afternoon! I guess we both had the same idea and we were lucky to be successful. Of course, YOU managed to see two of these huge Woodpeckers and even got a photo of both together.

No, of course not - just kidding! After walking all morning in -22C temperatures (with a windchill temperature of somewhere around -30C - thanks, George), I called in at one of my favourite spots and was lucky enough to have this male Hairy Woodpecker drop by : ). Though most of me was fine, my hands were so numb yet so agonizingly painful after just five seconds of being exposed in order to take as many shorts as I could bear to take. Why do we do this, LOL???? Oh, and we were SO lucky this morning to see the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl again - the second time this winter.

This handsome male posed so nicely for me - a lovely sideways pose to show off his little patch of red and his long beak. This was taken in a local park, where someone always puts some mixed seeds on this wooden post. As park regulations forbid the feeding of birds, this means I can take a few shots without any guilt that I've done something "wrong".

I try not to upload two photos of the same thing too close together. However, I thought if I posted a male and a female Pileated Woodpecker, you could compare the two. This image shows the male of the pair we saw yesterday - sporting a red moustache and a red crest that starts just above the bill. They are such amazing birds - their size is quite breathtaking and the head crest is awesome when the sun shines through it. Simply glows : ). Not cropped at all, by the way, so we were VERY lucky.

Another shot of the huge, female Pileated Woodpecker that we saw a few days ago in a local park. She and her mate flew from tree to log to tree to tree, giving us a few different locations for our images. Amazingly, we were able to get a few shots with no annoying branches in the way : ). It's never a good idea to stand below a tree with a Pileated Wioodpecker in it - they can make those huge chunks of tree bark FLY! This shot was taken in one of those exceedingly rare split seconds where the bird is actually still. The rest of the time they are hammering away, resulting in too many shots with a blurry head : )

Within seconds of arriving at a favourite park, a pair of these Hairy Woodpeckers flew down to where I was - this is the female (she has no red patch on the top of her head). Same thing happened with a pair of Downy Woodpeckers and a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches.

A close-up of a male Hairy Woodpecker to go along with the closeup of his mate, posted the other day. I was maybe 4' away from where they flew down to. I find Hairy Woodpeckers (at least this pair) are good at posing. Unfortunately, the light in the wooded area is poor, and most of my photos turned out blurry : (

This could so easily have been taken this week, as we have just dealt with a brutal winter snow storm the last two or three days. However, this male Hairy Woodpecker was down at Sikome, Fish Creek Park, on 24th January. We have a bitterly cold week ahead of us. It's beginning to feel very comfortable (apart from all the draughts that I have in my place!) to stay home and not face the cold, windy outside world, LOL.

I haven't had the chance to photograph a Pileated Woodpecker in quite a while so, even though this isn't the most photogenic "perch", I'll still post it. This female was seen in the Bankside area of Fish Creek Park.