RARE GUEST: RED-HEADED WOODPECKER


Red-headed Woodpecker, Little Maquoketa River Valley, near Durango, Iowa ------

It is an exiting time of the year for watching the birds, migrating ones or permanent residents. As already announced yesterday, we had a visitor in our woods that is supposed to be in eastern Iowa all year long, but we only have seen this bird four times during the month of May in the last 13 years. Well, it doesn’t matter, it is a beautiful woodpecker and making a few clicks yesterday early morning was a thrill. I saw the Red-headed Woodpecker again briefly today but wasn’t able to aim my lens at the bird again.

Making another click of a bird, days, weeks, months, or even years later bares always the question, was there any improvement? I knew from previous shootings that sharpness was kinda at the edge of acceptance in the past. This is a fact not so much visible in every picture posted on the world wide web, but the truth is revealed at the moment someone wants to print the photo on a larger scale. I know I made a step forward with yesterday’s photos, sharpness is a lot better than in the past, but as always, there is still room for improvement…