Pileated Woodpecker
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a bit of a slow week for me. I have been taking it a bit easy because my knee pain has been really bad this week. I went to the doctor last Thursday and he told me I have a tear on my mcl and that I have tendonitis. He said it should be a 3-4 week recovery process and just to stay off my knee as much as I can. I have a lot of photos to edit so I’ve decided to take it a bit easy for now. Also, spoke to him about my anxiety and I am currently looking for someone to talk to. I have Kaiser and unfortunately they don’t really have therapist available but are encouraging their patients to look outside of Kaiser with therapist they work with. I have been looking through and I am just trying to choose the best for me. I love sharing my experiences as I hope one day someone can benefit from it and try to get help for themselves. I also, like sharing my experience dealing with my MS and if that’s not for you I completely understand. I know every one has there opinions on what they share which is fine this is my journey and I don’t mind sharing. I wish everyone is kind to one another and I hope that you don’t let words get you down. You should do things that you love and are passionate for and that’s what I am trying to convey with my blog post and I am trying to also show you my passion through my work. Last week’s post was a very vulnerable one for me I had been keeping a lot inside so to share that was very therapeutic for me. I hope you read it and found it entertaining or at least informational. I do want to apologize as a couple blog post ago I turn on comments but had not noticed there wasn’t anywhere to write them. I hadn’t noticed it but thanks to my 6th grade teacher I still keep in touch with he let me know he couldn’t leave a comment. I fixed it if you would like to leave a comment please feel free I enjoy receiving feedback whether good or bad I learn from it. And thanks to my 6th grade teacher for reading and supporting me. You have done so much for me and I will always be eternally grateful.
I have always loved writing. Writing has not only been very therapeutic for me but it has help me show case my photography in a way that I have been enjoying. Not only do I get to share this beautiful looking birds but I have been enjoying learning about them and sharing it with you. I have always loved learning so photography has been a challenge I have been enjoying so much. There’s a lot more that goes into it then just going out and capturing this wonderful birds. A typical day of shooting for me doesn’t start the day of. I usually start days prior researching bird sightings around my area. If there is a certain bird I am looking for I search the specific bird and see how many times it’s been spotted in a certain area. I then go through the area and map out my route to ensure I pass by that certain area where they been spotted. However, with birding and wildlife photography is not always a sure thing you can prepare for days and head out and find nothing. But, you also have those days where you end up getting more then what you were expecting. Once I have my area picked and mapped out I start getting my equipment ready. I start seeing what I would need and ensure everything is working and functioning how its suppose to. That includes charging my batteries checking to see if I have space on my SD cards. I check to see if I may need additional equipment like tripod, extenders for range, extra batteries, extra SD cards, lenses, filters, and lens hoods. Once, I have all that ready I then set my alarm for early morning. I usually wake up around 5 or 6am and start heading out. Why? you may ask. Well, as a bird photographer or wildlife we are very dependent on the sun light. In the morning and before the sun goes down is when lighting is at it’s best. So I always try to get ahead of the sun.
Once, I get to the area I get my stuff ready and start walking on the trails. Yes, my equipment is very heavy. I carry around 25 lbs of equipment weight. It doesn’t sound like a lot but after hours of carrying it then you start to feel the weight of it. I have been trying to upgrade my tripod to a lighter one because the one I have contributes to most of the weight I am carrying. A very good tripod but definitely not for this kinds of hikes. Good tripods though are very expensive so it will have to wait for now I am making it work. After, I am done for the day I usually come home and start exporting the photos into my computer for editing. This is where most of the time passes sometimes because of the amount of photos I take sometimes. On a really good day I had a couple weeks ago I took about 1,200 photos. It may sound like I have a lot of photos for the year. However, I am very particular about what photos I edit they have to meet a certain criteria so I have to go through each and every single photo. Once, I have chosen my photos I start the editing process and then I think about what I am going to post and what I won’t. Certain pictures I hold them for future print drops. That’s usually how my day goes. Sometimes though I do not finish editing photos from a shoot until a week later. I have a lot of great photos that I been holding off to post later.
I have enjoyed learning about birds once you start you really can’t help but fall in love with this wonderful wild animals. One of my favorite family of birds have definitely been the woodpeckers. These birds are truly remarkable in the way they go about surviving day to day life. They are very vocal birds and I can guarantee that you will hear one while out in a walk in the woods or at your local parks. One of the first birds I ran into when I started birding was the pileated woodpecker. They are probably one of the largest woodpeckers I’ve seen. They are 3 times the size of a downy woodpecker. There are about 22 species of woodpecker here in North America. And the pileated woodpecker is truly one of the largest. These woodpeckers contribute so much to the environment. Since, they don’t use the same nesting cavity twice other birds benefit from the large nest they make in trees. Some species of owls use this nesting cavities as their own. When they peck on the wood they usually drum about 17 beats per second and will perform 10 to 30 beats before taking a break. These behaviors usually help them defend there territory and attract mates. They are very loud woodpecker they have a loud escalating shriek that sound like a maniacal laugh. These birds help control the forest beetle population there diet consist primarily of beetle larvae and ants.
A truly remarkable woodpecker wouldn’t you agree? this birds are always a treat to hear and see when out hiking. On the day I captured this photo I also encountered a bird I been looking for in awhile. I guess you can say the pileated woodpecker gave me good luck. I am planning to highlight a couple more birds I have enjoyed learning about in future blog post. Unfortunately, with the winter wrapping up soon which means most of the birds I have come to know will be migrating up North for mating season. But I am so excited to see the spring seasons birds. I heard you get to see a lot of cool looking birds during this time and I am excited to meet new birds and learn about them. If you are enjoying this beautiful birds stay tune for more coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog I have truly enjoyed writing this one this week as the pileated woodpecker is one of my favorite birds to encounter. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and hope this weeks weather is nice I am planning a very special shoot this weekend I hope it goes well.
Thank you all,
