Pat finds his redheads!

Most of you have heard Pat, WN8Z from Oswego NY area. Checks in with us when the band is right. Pat visited us a number of years ago and while traveling CA, checked in mobile all the time, He has family in Northern CA.

He is a pro photo man. Here is his story on the male Pileated Woodpecker. The two photos are outstanding.
Bill - WOQNI

[Female pileated woodpecker]

When you all last heard from me I had got off a couple of shots of the male pileated woodpecker...So those of you that wonder why I haven't been in for coffee, (you know who you are) or online a whole lot see now what I have been up to. This summers goal was set at getting two photos - a pileated woodpecker and a bald eagle... Not just snaps, but something worthy of publication or contest submission... Both to be taken in natural habitat - no staged shots taken at a zoo... Today's shots take care of the first one on the list -- and now I am off to get the eagles I see often soaring over the house... Oh yeah, one more photo shoot this summer -- I'll be shooting my daughter's wedding...(Luv ya baby girl)

I set up the tripod around 7am today and waited...and waited and waited.. I heard the pileated woodpeckers staying just inside the treeline in the backyard all day... The bluejays were active most of the day and I shot around 300 hi res shots of them. Around 2:30pm I left and returned the borrowed lens I was shooting with today and joked to my friend that "those darn woodpeckers will probably show themselves when I get back home because everytime I return this lens they pop out into the open"... She offered to lend me a different lens but I declined and told her I need to use the lens I recently acquired and get used to shooting with it.

We reviewed the bluejay shots and they were absolutely awesome - many are magazine quality... I returned home around 5:30 and was set up again shooting when I saw a flash of red way in the backyard on top of a bulldoze pile of old stumps - I whipped the camera around and shot but it was gone that fast..No matter really - I was overshooting the lens I had on the camera anyway.. I had a feeling that before the day was over I'd see that red head again.

Then I noticed my battery was showing only one bar -- I thought that I'd better go ahead and put it on the charger before it was completely dead "just in case the woodpecker showed up" - I figured I could grab it partially charged if necessary and get shots off...I laid down in the recliner and a bit later heard the woodpeckers give their call and thought to myself - "gee, that was close -- just on the end of the house," but still inside the treeline, out of sight. No sense even trying to stalk them, they are very timid and elusive -- the noise a person makes walking in the woods is more than enough warning...

I dozed off and awoke to a very loud call of a pileated woodpecker that sounded to be just outside my window! Now I had been sitting all day at that window with the tripod and that is where I shoot from - I have quite a colorful array of birds in my backyard sanctuary and with the borrowed lens I had been reaching out all day shooting bluejays in the trees at 70-100 ft away with extremely good results... To do this I remove the screen from the window so I have nothing in front of the lens... When I laid down I left the window open -- the last time I saw this guy I had tried to raise the window and just my movement that day from 70 feet away was enough to scare him away -- I left it open this time "just in case"...

I immediately shot out of my chair and carefully went to the window - actually I was on my hands and knees peeping out and saw just outside two big woodpeckers, the male about 18 or so inches, and the female a bit smaller...I was watching a male and a female pileated woodpecker "courting" each other and my camera was across the room with no battery! The male was flapping his wings and puffing his feathers and dancing around looking good for his lady friend... This was just too good to be true! I quickly crawled across the room (any movement past the window and these two would be gone) and grabbed the battery off the charger and with my shaking hands tried to get it loaded into the camera - it took more than one attempt to get it in...I again got on my hands and knees and made my way back to the window - hoping they were still there - and they were... I was so rattled that I forgot to check the settings on the camera and about 20 rapid shots into it remembered to check - I made a fast adjustment and raised the camera and zoomed in as tight as I could and started a series of burst shots hoping to get that "magazine quality shot" - I was cursing myself under my breath for returning that $2k lens but no matter - it is what it is and I hoped for just one or two great shots - I had enough memory left for another 400 shots and hoped the battery would last... Forty or so rapid burst shots later it was over... The male flew off (I got him in the air with wings spread) leaving his lady behind -- she raised up watching him fly off into the treeline and I shot my final 5 shot burst of her before she retreated...

I've resized two of the pics below for faster emailing (the original shots are 10 mp and quite large)

I have 5 shots that I will be working with from the series...Here are two of them...