{"id":1245,"date":"2008-11-15T01:11:56","date_gmt":"2008-11-15T01:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1245"},"modified":"2013-11-19T00:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T00:11:00","slug":"woodpecker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/woodpecker\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodpecker"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Not many shots today, but I did come across a woodpecker. I don't usually have much luck with these, but today I was persistent and fortune was with me. <\/p>\n

I first noticed it when it shot off into the distance, a blur of yellow-green. I lost sight of it for a while, but then spotted it flying into a small group of trees. As I approached it took the wing. I followed it to another group of trees. Off it shot, eventually coming to land on a nearby fence-post. By this time I was protected by the trees and was able to approach without being seen.<\/p>\n

As for taking the shot, the light was poor. I set the camera to ISO 800, with the aperture reasonably wide at f\/7.1. This produced a shutter speed of 1\/200s, which is somewhat slow for a full zoom (even with image stabilization). But it was about the best I could do. To avoid camera shake I used a monopod. These aren't as stable as a tripod, but the convenience and lack of weight makes them ideal for walking photography (tripods come into their own if you plan on staying in one spot). I managed about 10 or 11 frames before he took off again. This is probably the best of them. I've cropped the frame by around 50%, and used noise reduction on the background.<\/p>\n

It's a male, the identifying feature being the bright red flash across the 'moustache' below the eye.
Green Woodpecker<\/span><\/a>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: shot taken with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980],"tags":[115],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","tag-woodpecker","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t