Monday, March 1, 2010

Woodpecker In Flight

I finally found it! It's been almost a year since I took this picture. I meant to post it last spring when it was new, but so many things were happened that it got lost in the shuffle. And I really mean lost! When I went back to get it from my archives it was nowhere to be found.

I remember the day I took this very well. It was only the very second time I had ever seen a cormorant. I don't think I posted those pictures either. I had been disturbed by witnessing for the first time a garter snake eating a toad. I was just getting to know squirrels, and one of them startled me by running up to greet me.

And my biggest task was watching a mother goose sitting on her eggs. I wrote a huge series of posts where I monitored that goose from the first time I saw her until she actually hatched the eggs. I then watched those little goslings grow from hatchlings to adulthood. It was one of the greatest series of events I was ever privileged to witness.

So I guess you can understand why this photo, though it really is a good one, got lost in the shuffle. And yes I did say one photo. This photo above is the real one I took that day. The first one was cropped from this one so I could show you these two woodpeckers a little bit better. I personally like this original one. You can click on it to see it better anyway.

Although I am enjoying the winter, this picture is the kind of thing I hope to be showing you two months from now when spring is in full swing. Winter is really a great time if you look in the right places, but most of us enjoy spring much more because the return of green makes things seem so cheerful.

I'm just happy to have any day where I can go out and observe nature in action. I hope I can always do this. Any time of year is fine with me.

16 comments:

  1. Great capture, ratty! I don't see woodpecker around here, but two days ago, we saw a beautiful cardinal..

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  2. What a great picture- I bet you were chuffed with that one! I love woodpeckers. Which type of woodpecker is that? We only have 3 in the UK- greater spotted, lesser spotted and the green woodpecker. That doesn't look like any of those.

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  3. No wonder you didn't post this right away. Your first siting of a cormorant, a snake eating a toad, and watching a foose hatch her eggs? Quite an eventful spring. Sounds like you have your own version of Wild Kingdom.

    Bill:www.wildramblings.com

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  4. Any time of year is fine with me too but I am getting tired of the snow. Fortunately with the 'warm' weather it's time to build a snowman and give him his sign.

    'The End is Near'

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  5. I take many pictures on most of the Saturdays and Sundays. I tend to lose them easily.

    What I am doing now is to upload the useful one to blogger and title them immediately.

    The rest will be forever kept in the hard disk.

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  6. I missed Woody.. Woody Woodpecker :) Nice shot Ratty.

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  7. Loved this shot...I am always so happy when I capture a bird in motion or doing something weird too....

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  8. That must have been fun to watch those geese grow up. Did you get a lot of pictures of that??? That would be fun to see. And that is a great photo of the woodpecker. We don't see a lot of woodpeckers here. Just once in a while. Have a great day.

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  9. Great shot. With all you had going on around you last year no wonder the woodpecker got set aside. That must have been so much fun watching the goose with the eggs. Too bad it wasn't the goose that laid the golden egg though

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  10. How exciting!! I see them singly, and I'm sure there are pairs around here, but I've never actually seen 2 of them together...wonderful photo (I love these little birds!)

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  11. That's a great capture of those woodpeckers! I'm glad you found it, although it does sound like you had a busy and eventful spring last year!

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  12. Beautiful shot of the woodpecker in flight Ratty. I am always forgetting about photos in my archives but it is fun to run across them later.

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  13. Amazing shot! It looks different, as far a I can see, from the woodpeckers we have here.

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  14. Great shot Ratty. We have a bunch of red headed-woodpeckers in the woods behind my Apt.

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  15. How awesome to capture him in flight. Wow, I really look forward to the day I can do that - if ever. Fantastic shots Ratty.

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  16. Those in-flight shots are always great to actually catch! I'm glad you found this one and shared it.

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