Thursday, November 3, 2011

PILEATED ON CUE


Late yesterday afternoon I answered a comment from "Giggles" regarding the pileated shot I'd run with that post. I said I hoped to capture a better shot of the woodpeckers now that I'd started resupplying suet blocks as part of the fall/winter feeding routine—and mentioned that the big birds had already begun returning to the dooryard as part of their daily routine. 

About then, I casually looked out my deskside window. Huh? What's that in yonder box elder tree? 

In one of those amazing coincidences you hate to mention because it sounds too hokey to be true—there, even as I proclaimed my pileated portraiture intentions, sat one of the very birds themselves, perched on a limb perhaps twenty-five feet from where I sat. Actually, herself, since the pileated in question was a female. She was busily whacking away at what remained of a suet block which I'd put out the day before, and which sometime during the night, the raccoons had dragged up, wire cage and all, onto the limb.

Just as I grabbed my camera, the male pileated flew in. Unfortunately, I had the setting on "autofocus," which was problematic given the lighting conditions. While the lens was busy seeking this way and that, as I fumbled at the switch, the female flew off, leaving only the male for my through-the-window shot.

Is this image better than yesterday's? Giggles gets to make that call…but I think so. Though it's still not the one I'm after—one of those every-feather-in-detail poses which was not going to happen here given the backlit situation. 

However, the annual game of sneak-and-snap has just begun… 
———————          

22 comments:

giggles said...

I clicked on your post and gasped, "Oh my GOSH!!!!!!!"

How lucky are you????!!!!! This a fantastic photo.... Thank you ( and Mr. Pilieated!) for humoring me!!! (I am in a much better humor the past day or so!)

Score? 10 out of 10!!!!!!

Grizz………… said...

Giggles…

So, a couple of notches above yesterday's?

Frankly, it turned out better than I dared hope given the circumstances—lighting, window, angle, and general beat-up condition of yours truly, who was simply on a short, deskside will-to-live and strength-finding break from ripping up the bathroom floor. [Which, as it turned out following a late trip to Lowe's for additional materials, was accomplished at midnight. And, no, I don't want to be a plumber when I grow up. God bless 'em, they deserve every penny!]

The Weaver of Grass said...

What a handsome bird Grizz.

Grizz………… said...

Weaver…

He is handsome, a real dandy, and astonishingly huge for a woodpecker—about the size of our crow or slightly larger (by a couple of inches) than your rook.

bonifer said...

Great shot, Grizz, I love the Pileated, we have many here, and often see them on the walking trails, they are big for sure but beautiful!! Haven't gotten a pic of one this fall yet but I did hear one today!!

Grizz………… said...

Bonifer…

I'm really fortunate here in that there are always pileateds around. Getting good shots just depends on being watchful and lucky—though it's amazing how often both factors seem to conspire against me. ;-)

Robin said...

I have never seen one of these. It's a great shot!

Grizz………… said...

Robin…

You'd never forget a woodpecker the size of Volkswagen, for sure. But maybe one of these days you'll be in the right place at the right moment. Meanwhile, I'll try and keep taking photos for you.

Samantha said...

I'm so jealous! Six years now I've been trying for a pileated photo..I have one grainy, crummy distance shot.

This is a gorgeous photo!

Grizz………… said...

Samantha…

Thank you. But honestly, it's as much luck and circumstance as it is skill. I live in a good pileated spot here along the river. There's always a pair hanging around on the long, narrow island across from the cottage—and they regularly flap over to see what free eats are available. Whether it's the same or another pair, several neighbors also have visiting pileateds at their feeders. They're still wild and easily spooked—pileateds being pileateds—but I have more than my share of opportunities.

BTW, this is, I think, a better shot of the bird, though I don't like the feeder showing.

http://riverdaze.blogspot.com/2011/02/mister-big.html

KGMom said...

Super shot...maybe, since it's so big, it's actually an ivory-billed? Nah.
Anyway, great shot.

Grizz………… said...

KGMom...

Wouldn't that be something. But...no, not an ivory- billed, which are/were slightly larger. Still spectacular though.

Hazel Price said...

Couple of years back I stayed in a hermit cabin in the woods of Minnesota and saw these beautiful birds for the first time.

I was so amazed, as we just don't see birds with this glorious colour wild in Britain.

Your beautiful photo took me back to the silence of the woods, and the simplicity of the time and place of my retreat.

Thnak you.

Grizz………… said...

Hazel…

First off, welcome to the riverbank! I hope you visit often and always enjoy your time here.

The northcountry around the Great Lakes is generally good pileated woodpecker country—though I occasionally have people tell me they've lived there all their life and never saw a single one. Of course the same thing happens here—avid birders suddenly spot their first-ever pileated and can't believe such a giant woodpecker has been in their own backyards all that time. But whenever and wherever you see that first one, it's an experience you remember.

The woods is a place of wonder—I wouldn't say silence, but solitude and peace and solace. I'm sure you remember your time in the Minnesota woods as a wonderful experience.

Again, welcome…

giggles said...

Thank you, btw... I forgot to say thank you. Yes, a couple, at least, of notches better. I've printed out these last few photos in hopes of wetting my watercolor appetite.... There's a feeder somewhere???? Can't see it....

Grizz………… said...

Giggles…

You're welcome, and I'll take ever notch I can manage. You can't see the feeder because I cropped it out…it's about two inches to the right. The raccoons drag the thing up into the tree during the night, wedge it across a limb, and eat at leisure—only this time, for whatever reason, they departed still leaving suet in the cage. Don't you think it's a better pileated pix without a nasty ol' feeder? Say, you feeling any twitching in those watercolor nerves yet? What about a nagging in your artistic streak? Or creative guilt from yours truly? Just trying to pry you loose from shoulda/woulda/coulda syndrome. ;-)

Kelly said...

Oh my gosh, Grizz. What a shot! It's the best "pose" of a pileated I've ever seen in a photo...

Grizz………… said...

Kelly…

That's the rarely-witnessed stalking-ready-to-pounce stance. Took me weeks of cajoling, begging, and threatening to get that truculent pileated to assume the position long enough for a snap. ;-)

giggles said...

Yep, at least a couple!

giggles has been quilting. (I was re-inspired when I took a Mary Whyte watercolor class.... After 3 days of struggling in the medium of watercolor, I asked if I could show her that I was truly good at SOMETHING! I brought in a wallhanging of which I am particularly proud.... Long story short, she used it in her demo for the day and it appeared in a finished portrait that she recently sold (for $24k!) and that portrait may even be in a book to be published this winter!!! Needless to say, that experiences got the creative quilting juices going again....) And reading. And yet I can't get a quilt project done while I'm reading and can't get a book finished while I'm quilting. Leaves little room for other pursuits.... Even ones like finding a real job again. (Yes, sadly, I must think about commencing to begin to research a return to that world...and boy is that making me cranky...!)

Grizz………… said...

Gioggles…

Quilting is good. It's like painting with scraps of fabric…and no brushes to clean afterwards. And quilting is something you can work on for a few days or a few months because it's never all that quick to completion. Plus you can hang them on the wall as textile art, snuggle in one while watching TV or reading, spread one on the bed and please the dog, cat, or yourself and stay warm underneath on cold winter's night, or wrap your latest victim in, drag them out to the car and into the trunk, and subsequently haul them off to your favorite country road body dump. Can't do that with a watercolor!

Real jobs are overrated. I say delay as long as possible—and then consider an alternate lifestyle.

giggles said...

If my kids were on their own, yes... My oldest is only 14...(and I gots 3 o' dem!) I have a long way to go.... We are the bank o' Mom and Dad for awhile still.... If I could just figure out a way to get paid a living wage for my quilting....

Grizz………… said...

Giggles…

Yup, having raised my daughter, I know life must take precedent over "living." You have to do the right and necessary things first, before doing the "want to" things. Your kids are at almost the top of the list, just under your responsibility to God…but unquestionably ahead of yourself.

Making a living wage from any sort of art or handicraft is a tough row to hoe—it can be done, but you have to always keep in mind that the art or craft is the easy part, and accounts for no more than ten percent of the equation; it's the hustle/sales/marketing/promotion afterwards that makes the difference. Doing whatever it is you do is not the same as getting paid for doing it—that's a whole 'nother game.