Alberta Birds – Three-toed Woodpecker
by Dusty ~ June 20th, 2010. Filed under: Birdwatching etc.Could I have got any closer? I doubt it. If I had I would have had the woodpecker in my hand! I had always know that Three-toed Woodpeckers were confiding but I stood over the this male as he hammered for grubs in an old stump of wood taking pictures like there was no tomorrow.I had only seen one other Three-toed and that was over ten years ago in the forests of Eastern Poland. It is always a bit of a holy grail of a woodpecker for birders in Europe. And yesterday in Banff Calgary I was fortunate to get up real close.
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Walking the Marsh Loop just out of town the bird entertained us at it moved quickly from branch to stump to ground. At one point it actually flew directly to me as if it thought I was a tree, only changing direction at the last moment.
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It finally settle on one stump extracting grubs with rapid pecks. You could see the grubs lined up in its bill, no doubt food for hungry chicks in a hole somewhere in the surrounding wood.
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Although this was my first day birding on this trip, I think this could be the bird encounter of the trip.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Hi Dusty:
Great images! It was a lot of fun to follow you and Bob and get caught up in the excitement of birding. I was out in Canmore yesterday at the back of Quarry Lake (near the Nordic Centre) and got some great shots of a Great Blue Heron. Sounds like your having a great visit and seeing lots of wildlife…see you at the talk in Banff on the 28th.
Deborah
June 25th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Deborah – this was a bit of surprise – thank you for taking us around the Marsh Loop. having a great time in Alberta and looking forward to the talk in Banff. Edmonton and Calgary talks went well.
Best wishes
D