Merlin, Pileated Woodpeckers (20141110) City Parks part 1

Well Monday after a pretty drab stay at home Sunday, hmmph. A lady I ran into was complaining about D7000 images so I offered to shoot it for a bit and see how it really was performing. My first test shot was of the cherry tree out at the front of the house, even though the side glass, it didn't look too bad.

You can see the snow being blown sideways in the shot so you have some idea of the weather conditions. I headed out, to one of our local parks, later in the afternoon to see if I could find anything to run my tests on. I always find flying gulls to be a challenge so I took a few images.

With quickly fading light I also found this Merlin and thought it would make a good test subject.

Overall, Ithink her camera is find:) I took about 500 images and found the unit to be behaving similar to my own.
The next morning (it is Rememberance Day here in Canada so I have to spend time in the woods to honour all those that have served in support of our country) I headed out to another park looking for the mysterious Black-backed Woodpecker once again. I made a swing around the "Bobcat spot" and saw no sign. I did however find this Coyote. I watch as he did a little hinting and came up with this vole.

On to my original destination where I was greeted by this female Pileated Woodpecker.

Most of my tour was uneventful unfortunately but I did find this Three-toed Woodpecker prior to packing it in.

while shooting this bird, I heard another woodpecker going to town on a tree. I managed to locate this Pileated, which I believe is the same one I had seen earlier. I almost kicked her as I cam around the corner, she was right at the bottom of the tree.

Another terrific encounter, with a tremdous subject. While these are impressive sized birds, I believe my favourite is still the Lewis's.  I end this post here hoping that you get out somewhere this week and get some wild in your life.
Turbo