Took Skruffy out for her morning ritual after Breakfast (she goes before breakfast and then about an hour after her 8 am breakfast…so this was around 9 am in the morning.) I hear the squirrels just chattering and chattering…enough that I look up in the tree which is just over the fence from the Condo’s property. And what do I see? A Pileated Woodpecker! Wow, this is my first Pileated Woodpecker in Florida…I think. At least the first one here where we live. I use to see them in Arkansas in the park I lived in while working at the Library. Not real often, but enough that I knew they were around there. I have also seen a couple during our travels. The only woodpecker which is bigger is the ivory-billed woodpecker, which they 'thought' they found again in Arkansas, but never caught on camera.
This picture above was my first shot…you never know how long a creature will stay still, so you need to get a quick picture just in case that is all you get. Fortunately, I was able to get a number of close-up shots.
Then you in with the zoom, and with birds, you put it on multi-shot because they have a tendency to move their heads real quick…this way you have more shots to pick from.
And if you are lucky, you get to see what they are up to. I knew the squirrels had nothing to fear with the Pileated Woodpecker, it does not go after squirrels or their young. These birds mainly eat insects, especially carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae. They also eat fruits, nuts, and berries. Today, it was Berry time…which is probably why it was out among a few isolated trees, and not in a grove of trees…but there are many groves nearby.
Here it was “eyeing” the berries that you saw in its mouth in the previous picture.
Not sure it knew I was down below or not…it turned to the right like this a few times, never did see it turn to the left. Those squirrels never did stop…they saw this big bird as a threat regardless of its true intentions.
This was one of the last pictures I took…it was still after some more berries. Went inside to show Marcia what I got, went back out…and it was gone. What a good way to start the day! Just think what type of pictures I could get if I got out there and tried to find something. Well, that's something to worry about on another day.
