Downy Woodpeckers
The bad thing is, the big sugar maple right in front of the house is dying, slowly but surely. Half of the canopy is already without leaves and every day another piece of bark or a branch is found in the grass below. We know we need to cut the tree down soon because there is a good chance it may fall onto the house in a storm or strong wind. It will be a sad day, no matter what.
The good thing is, the Downy Woodpeckers took the opportunity, drilled holes in one of the dead branches, and raise their offspring in the tree right now. As you can imagine, we hold the tree cutting for now.
The photographer took the ladder today and climbed onto the roof of the porch. Everything was with me, camera, long lens, tripod , gimbal head, speed light, and flash extender. Even on the roof the nest hole was still a bit higher but I found a gap between the branches to make this photo.
The Downy Woodpeckers are around here all year long and are really used to our presence. Sometimes, if I fill a feeder in the yard, they don’t fly away unless I come in a range of less than 3 feet. Both parents feed the offspring. While one is out to find food, the other one is in the nesting hole and guards it. The chance for a photo is when they have the “changing of the guard”.
Here the female downy arrives and shows the male what she had in her bill. A second later the male would leave the nest and let the female take his place. I was running out of light this evening (did I mention yet that we had another gray day with almost no sun? 😏) and the only way to shoot against the gray sky was to employ some fill flash. I left the ladder in place and maybe this weekend is another chance for some interesting moments.
1/320 s, f/6.3, ISO 400, @600 mm, +1 EV, flash -1.7 EV; with Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender;