Click any photo to enlarge

Friday, March 6, 2020

Good and bad woodpeckers

Finally got my first Lucifer photo of the year. First Lucifer photo with my new camera, too.


I had the white balance set too high and cut off the tail, but I'll learn...eventually. Sometimes Lucifer gorgets look very reddish and sometimes they look very blue-ish. Just depends on the lighting and humidity, or whatever. Normally, they're more of a magenta color.

I'm being defeated by the Golden-fronted Woodpecker! Might have to invent something to keep the feeders from tilting or put a screen around the feeders to keep the woodpecker off. Or shoot the woodpecker! I'm really frustrated that it won't leave the feeders alone.

I've been waiting for the Ladder-backed Woodpeckers to excavate nesting holes in the new agave stalk. Today one appeared to have started a hole. We will see. It's on the south side of the stalk, which Elf Owls don't prefer, but maybe I can turn the stalk. Time is of the essence. The female owls will be choosing their nests this month.




5 comments:

Marlin Andrus said...

Good to see the Lucifer is back. Nice photo. Connie and have a Sony RX10 IV that we haven’t put to use yet. Maybe later you could share your settings with us.
We have 8-10 Bullock Orioles spend the summer with us and they drink on hummingbird feeders spilling the nectar. Same bee problem here!

Carolyn Ohl-Johnson said...

I just shot this on S mode with the white balance ramped up too much. I think I had it at 1.3 and the speed at 1/1600. I'm just playing around with it still. It's weird, I noticed the gorget looks blue and the first Lucifer pic I took last year had a blue gorget. Can't figure it out. Must be the light this time of year, but I think other times this time of year the gorget color has been normal. My camera is a 3 and yours is a 4 but I think a faster shutter speed gives sharper pictures. So try that with a little adjustment on the white balance but not much.

Chaparral Earth said...

Jack Arona & Daniel Smith, why Spam under the phony guise of being interested in her blog ???

Marlin Andrus said...

Thanks for the info. Gives me a heads up.��

Carolyn Ohl-Johnson said...

I don't understand why people do that either. I delete spam comments.