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!

Photo of the Week # 1

OK, So I don't forget about my blog I am going to start a

"Photo of the Week" series.
Maybe just the image, maybe a story behind the image.
Let's see how long I can keep it going.

This image was taken on May 2nd 2006. It was in Delray Beach, Florida at Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I was talking to a gentleman from England and I spotted this Purple Gallinule walking on the Fireflag stalk in attempt to get to the tender buds, a favorite food, at the end of the stalk. I quickly focused & fired off 6 shots and during that the Purple Gallinule opened it's wings to better balance itself.

The funny thing is that it all took place in about 2 seconds. The English man was still talking and never even turned to see what I shot. I too kept up the conversation for a few more minutes and forgot about the shot until I got home.

I am proud to say this is also my first published image.

Cool huh ?

Michael Wolf