Blue Jay
Winter has finally arrived here with the last couple of nights going down to -20 degrees Celsius and we have about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. This morning I took advantage of some spare time and settled into my photo blind out in the backyard with a thermos of coffee, lots of battery power, and a several compact flash cards. The Blue Jays were particularly active today. Here are three of my favorites of the day.
Now for the surprise…beside my feeding station that I have set up with an assortment of perches (that I change frequently) for photographing songbirds, I have a two foot section of a tree trunk set-up with suet cakes on the backside of the trunk (so they are not visible in the photos) to attract woodpeckers. The woodpeckers that I am able photograph with this set=up are Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, however, this morning I glanced over at the trunk to see if there was any activity on it and was shocked to see a beautiful Red-bellied Woodpecker enjoying the suet cakes. I am going out tomorrow for more images and hope that this woodpecker is still hanging around and remains cooperative. Below I have posted two images captured this morning. I like them both, although I do think the head angle on the last photo is a little better, but the first image does show off the beautiful red cap behind the woodpecker’s head. Let me know which is your favorite and why?
Andrew McLachlan 