Photo of the Week #3

Here is a Male Downy Woodpecker at his nest entrance ready to feed the two young chicks inside. If you look closely you can see that he has Paper Wasp larva in his beak!
This nest was located on a busy boardwalk at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida. I witnessed many people walk right by this nest with no idea a woodpecker nest was a mere three feet from their heads!
This nest became very popular with the local photographers and the woodpeckers never seemed to be alarmed in the least they came & went hourly and provided weeks worth of images.
I thought this gem of a nest would go on for years but sadly hurricane Wilma destroyed it in October of 2005. Luckily the nest was empty as the two Downy Woodpeckers fledged safely!

Flamingo , ENP Florida April 17 2008

I went down to Flamingo in Everglades National Park today to shoot a Pileated Woodpecker nest with three chicks and it appears a single chick fledged today and the other two probably did so this afternoon or by tomorrow. I hope it is the latter as I am heading down there again in the AM for another chance at shooting them ! It was spectacular. Here is a Pileated flight image as well as an image of a Red Shouldered Hawk that was harassing them.

It is a two hour drive to Flamingo as it as at the very end of mainland Florida. Well, two hours with no traffic that is ! I left at 5 AM to get there at & 7AM for sunrise as the nest is
situated so the sun will hit it after a few minutes from rising and it is in good light untill 10 AM.


Then it is off to "Robert Is Here" fruit stand for the BEST MILKSHAKES in Florida !!
It is actually mandatory that you stop on the way out of ENP , or so I am told.

Anyway, I hope for more images tomorrow. I'll keep myself posted..... haha.

Michael Wolf