![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/downy-woodpecker-7834-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"downy-woodpecker-7834-ron-dudley.\\"")
<\/p>\nI thought mullein was an unusual perch for the species but I guess Downy Woodpeckers aren’t picky about where they find their ‘bugs’.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed him two days ago in the Wasatch Mountains. When I first saw him on this mullein flower stalk he was much too far away for decent photos but he allowed me a close approach in my pickup. In order to avoid blocking any traffic that might come along on the dirt road I had to get a little too close so I was forced to shoot vertically in order to keep all of him in the frame.<\/p>\n Downy Woodpeckers are our smallest woodpecker and I think many folks are surprised by how small they really are. By weight they’re slightly smaller than a House Sparrow, 28 grams for the sparrow versus 27 grams for the woodpecker according to Sibley.<\/p>\n For a woodpecker they can be hard to spot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Based on the red on his head this is a male. He was circling around the mullein stalk as he climbed vertically in his quest for insects which soon after this photo was taken ruined many of what would have been my better shots. Can any sharp eyes in the crowd spot the reason why my photos would be ruined when he climbed any higher?<\/p>\n There was a fence wire about half way between me and the bird and I had no choice but to shoot through it when he ascended any higher than this on the the stalk. In this photo that wire can be seen as a not quite horizontal and slightly blurry band directly above the woodpecker’s head. It’s especially noticeable as it passes through the mullein near the top of the frame.<\/p>\n Because the woodpecker was slowly ascending the stalk all my shots after this one were ruined by that slightly blurry wire as it passed between his head and my lens.. Drats!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This shot, taken just before he flew to the mullein, is arguably the best photo I’ve ever taken of a Downy Woodpecker, at least technically. I believe that despite the fact that the tips of some of his stiff tail feathers are right at the bottom of the frame edge.<\/p>\n Over the years my luck with Downy Woodpeckers has been surprisingly bad so I was happy to get this photo, even with that slightly annoying out of focus branch at upper left.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Besides, a vertical composition of the same photo eliminates the offending blurry branch.<\/p>\n In the past nearly all of my photos of Downy Woodpeckers were cluttered with messy branches and twigs so a clean background like this one is highly unusual for me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought mullein was an unusual perch for the species but I guess Downy Woodpeckers aren’t picky about where they find their ‘bugs’.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/downy-woodpecker-7858-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"downy-woodpecker-7858-ron-dudley\\"")
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