Readers’ wildlife videos

As a Saturday special, I’ll show two digiscoped videos made by reader Tara Tanaka (Vimeo site here, photography site here).  The first shows male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) bathing (note the sexual dimorphism), and a bonus vireo. Tara adds that if you follow the Vimeo link in the lower-right corner of the video and watch in full-screen, 1080 HD, you’ll get the best viewing experience.

Cardinals are our most common yard bird, but I am still amazed at their beauty every time I see one. Each bird seems to have its preferred bathing style. I’ve tried to get video of the [White-eyed] Vireo [Vireo griseus] in the water, but finally learned it’s better to wait for him to return to the branch between lightning-fast dips in the water. Many male Cardinals like to soak in the water like the female in this video, but this one seemed to enjoy a light shower on this day. My favorite move is “the ol’ right-dip — left-dip” of the female Cardinal.. Enjoy!

Digiscoped using manual focus in 4K with the GH4 mounted on a Swarovski STX 85 using the Digidapter, 1300mm equivalence.

And some woodpeckers drinking:

A few weeks ago I looked out the window to see the first Red-bellied Woodpecker [Melanerpes carolinus] I’ve ever seen in our water feature. As I watched, a Northern Flicker [Colaptes auratus] joined her! I’ve wanted to get a good photo of a Flicker for years, but it has eluded me.

I started going out in my blind every afternoon, but I soon realized that getting even a quick photo of the Flicker wasn’t going to be easy. The first time I saw him I was sitting well back in the darkness of my blind, and he landed just over the bush that provides cover next to the water. I move about 2″ forward toward the camera, and he was gone. On the days that followed as soon as I would hear him in the distance, I would get behind the camera and do my best not to move at all. Finally one afternoon he landed on a stick in the shadows behind the water, in front of our field of yellow daisies. He dropped to the water after about 10 seconds, and I had to pan painfully slowly down to where he’d landed so as not to frighten him with the movement of the camera. I silently mouthed “Don’t leave! Don’t leave!” during what seemed like forever to pan to him in the water.

I think that the extreme drought is only reason we have had woodpeckers at the water, and that it hadn’t rained in so long that all of their knot holes and other water sources had finally dried up. It rained yesterday, so it will be interesting to see if either species returns to the water – I can only hope they do.