Fall Photo Round-Up

Another year has passed me by, only got out a couple times to enjoy the call of the wild. No luck at all with my duck hunting and managed only a few photos from my limited outdoor adventures.  So I'll share what I have.

During this season of duck hunting, I saw more Pileated Woodpeckers than ducks. I've been hunting flooded timber for more than ten years and seeing this species of woodpecker but this is the first year that I have been able to get a photo of one. 

Sometimes the treasure you seek is not the treasure you find.

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker 2

Pileated Woodpecker 3

Pileated Woodpecker 4

These Mallard dekes are two of several that I carved almost 15 years ago, made from light brown cork and basswood heads they have with-stood years of abuse.

Hand-Carved Cork Working Decoys

This morning the clouds moved in and made the sun look like the full moon.

Dark-Sun

I have a weakness for the morning sun 's reflection in still water.

Double-Sun

Each and every plants fight an on going battle for their place in the sun.

Allusion of Chaos

Magenta sky at the break of day.

Sun-Rise over the Decoys

The heavens bleed after a good day of duck hunting.

The Sky Turned a Blood-Red

 The moon appeared to rise so far to the north and early on this afternoon that I actually thought there was a problem with the Universe, LOL.

Bayou Moon

Pileated Woodpecker

I saw an article and film earlier today.  The film was of the Imperial Woodpecker. The article also mentioned the Cornell Uni. search to find the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the impenetrable swamps of Arkansas. These were extremely large birds and they were dependent on the old growth forest. Loss of  habitat caused both bird's extinction. 

Pileated Woodpecker hunts for insects

Well, during a duck hunt in an impenetrable swamp in Indiana, the silence of the flooded timber was shattered by the laughing call of a pair of very large woodpeckers.  Wish I could say  I saw an Imperial or Ivory-billed but I can't , they're extinct. The bird I did see is now the largest of the woodpeckers in North America.  One of the bigger birds to be seen, it was a Pileated Woodpecker.

Big bird makes a big hole

About the size of a Mallard. Body and wing feathers are black and white,  its head is topped with a crest of red feathers. They are an impressive bird. A three inch bill is used to chip away wood in their hunt for insects.  The holes made in the trees are large, in a matter of a minute or two, this bird's hole was a six inch square and four inches deep. 

Many species of ducks nest in woodpecker holes

Many animals benefit from the work of the woodpeckers, other birds find grubs in trees that have been chipped open by the Pileated Woodpecker and many other animals expand the woodpeckers holes and use them for nesting hollows.

Black wing fringe, Pileated Woodpecker(Dryocopus pileatus)

Yea, this picture is grossly over-exposed but I like it. It's a good example of the identifying feather pattern of the Pileated Woodpecker. The black fringe on the flight feathers is characteristic of the Pileated.  The Imperial and Ivory-billed  wings are white fringed.