Tuesday 17 June 2014

Mrs Great Spotted Woodpecker

8.15 p.m. went through to the kitchen to brew a cuppa when I saw a flash of feathers as a female Great Spotted Woodpecker landed on one of the peanut feeders. All previous sightings of GSWs have been of a male so it made a change to see Mrs. I had already put the cameras to bed as light levels were poor but quickly grabbed the 70D and whooped the ISO up to 12800 in the hopes of getting a few hand held record shots:

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Obviously at that high an ISO the background is very grainy. Especially when I processed them to increase the colour and contrast. At least I was able to confirm it was a female - no red patch on the back of the head. Maybe now male and female are visiting I may get to see one or more juveniles in the near future.

7 comments:

  1. Nice sighting John. Definitely a garden rarity here ... only one visit in 6 years!

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    Replies
    1. Frank: I wonder how often they come. They stay for such a short time it is pot luck if I see one.

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  2. Great to have a couple with the possibility of offspring.

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    Replies
    1. Wilma: I had a juvenile visit a year or so back so I may get lucky again.

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  3. Always a wonderful sight noise or no noise.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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