Woodpecker Pic

[Frank97]

I've been trying for sometime now to get a snap of this one, so I'm rather pleased with this effort and thought I'd share!
http://i791.photobuck...97/D97x7/IMG_3262.jpg
Not to bad for a point and shoot camera IMO.

[Kiki-frog]

What a fantastic pic. We get a lot of the spotted woodies round our way, but we've never had once close enough to photograph.

[Mamyalynne]

Great pic!! Well done.

[shoota]

Good shot! Did you see the Woodpecker that took a chick from a nesting box on Springwatch last night? Didn't know they were chick thieves.......

[Frank97]

No I missed that shoota, I didn't know they were nest raiders either!

[shoota]

It was viewer footage someone sent in and showed a common (I think) w/*** flying onto the perching post of a nestbox, lunging inside and then decamping with a chick.
I know corvids do that but didn't know that w/peckers did.

[shoota]

Ha ha look at that - wouldn't let me write 'p ecker' but would let me write 'peckers'.
Ther is probably a smutty moral in there somewhere!

[ladybirder]

Oh yes. Their bills are just made for nicking babies from the nest.

[rowanwitch]

It will be on bbc catch up...

[ladybirder]

And they are probably better at clinging on to the side of a nest box or tree trunk than a corvid.

[Frank97]

I'll have a look for it on the iplayer later.

[rowanwitch]

I think it was towards the end of the programme once they'd moved into the barn

[Vicasso]

Yes! like it :-)
I'm an amateur snapper.
A little story....
Around twenty years ago, I had a 35mm manual focus Olympus SLR that had an LED in the viewfinder that confirmed when the subject was in perfect focus. At the time you could buy a plug in attachment that would automatically fire the shutter as soon a the subject was in focus. This was to help to photograph moving subjects.
I set the kit up on a tripod and trained it on a bird feeder similar to yours as a variety of tits and finches were regular visitors. I then went inside to the nearest window and waited. A beautiful male bullfinch arrived and at his first peck fired the shutter. Success! Unfortunately, the noise of the shutter startled him and he shot off leaving the bird feeder swinging wildly to and fro. Result?
One picture of a bullfinch and thirty five perfectly focused shots of a swinging bag of nuts :-)

[rockyracoon]

What a lovely picture, you should send it off to a nature magazine.

[Frank97]

:-) Vicasso, I assume you had to pay to get them all developed back then, most annoying!

[Vicasso]

D97x7 ...correct!

I remember getting the envelope back from Max Spielman, the postal developing service, opening the paper photo wallet and saying 'Good!, er, mmmmm, bin, bin, bin, bin............

[tonyav]

Great photo.

[chaptazbru]

Great pic, but I'm upset to read they eat chicks as well, how on earth do songbirds ever survive ???

[ladybirder]

They have a hard life chappy although to hear them singing at dawn today you wouldn't think so. Where I live it has been the best dawn chorus for years I'm very pleased to say.