Lucky photo: Red-bellied woodpecker X Two.

photo by Jonathan Schechter  June 22, 2012

Kensington Metropark in SE Michigan

I would like to claim it was skill. I would like to say I waited for hours, perhaps days for this shot.

 I would like to even boast about my camera settings, tripod work and all sorts of technical camera  things I know nothing about. But none of that would be true.  Here is what happened to capture this image of an adult red-bellied woodpecker passing a seed off  to her begging youngster.

I was walking a nature trail with my friend Amanda, an avid nature-wise birder and she was showing me how to hold morsels of nuts and seeds in my hand to let chickadees land and feed. That happened. But I was a sloppy holder of seed and a few fell to the ground.

The adult red-bellied woodpecker in the picture swooped in and snatched a seed off the trail and headed straight for the nearest tree.  I raised my camera hoping to snag one good shot of the bird perched on the dead tree, a tree of life for woodpeckers. And just as I started to squeeze the button on the camera --set on auto focus mind you - I noted a slight blur and the eager juvenile zipped around the trunk.

I captured the food passing and did not even realize it at the moment.

A very good day in the world of nature.

But the best news of all is this was the second unplanned action capture of bird life on the same day.  Come back to the blog in a few days for the photo of the "intruder osprey" and the dramatic story behind the story.

The best adventures in life are in nature and unplanned!