In the Field

A mouthful of bugs helps the medicine go down... Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. July 15, 2004.

Lewis's Woodpeckers are rare and uncommon woodpeckers with atypical (for a woodpecker) foraging methods - they use aerial hawking of insects as a primary means of catching their prey. In this shot, this adult is about to feed the nestlings with a mouthful of very appetizing (?) bugs! Lewis's Woodpeckers are currently listed in Canada as a "Species of Special Concern", meaning that they're the next thing to threatened or endangered.

This image took almost a month of planning and preparation. In order to minimize my impact on these nesting birds I took extreme caution in introducing my equipment to the vicinity of the nest cavity. I took two weeks to move my tripod to within shooting range - I initially left it about 30 metres from the nest and moved it closer by only a few metres every couple of days. Once the tripod was in position I gradually exposed the birds to the camera and lens, initially leaving it in place for only a few minutes in mid-afternoon when the birds normally reduce the feeding of their nestlings. Within a week or so of its first introduction, the birds were acting completely indifferent to the camera - in fact they were using the lens as a perch on a regular basis. When it came time to shoot I decided to trigger the camera with a remotely controlled radio-based shutter release (which I triggered from a distance of about 200 metres while I watched the nest through a spotting scope). I dislike using remote releases as you're always guessing at what the view through the viewfinder really looks like, but in this case it was absolutely impossible to man the camera without disturbing the subject.

Was it all worth it? I was successful in getting a few decent images of the nesting birds. But, more importantly, the birds successfully made it through the nesting cycle and successful fledged 4 offspring, which was very gratifying to see!

Behind the Camera

A mouthful of bugs helps the medicine go down... Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. July 15, 2004.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 200.

Nikon D2H with Nikon 200-400 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens @ 400 mm (600 mm equivalent with digital conversion factor) supported on Gitzo G2220 tripod with Manfrotto 222 Joystick ballhead. SB-800 flash (fill) with Better Beamer Flash Extender mounted on camera. VR turned to "On" and in "Normal" mode. Autofocus system and shutter triggered by radio-based remote release (adapted from a model airplane controller).

1/250s @ f8; -0.33 stop exposure compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting; balanced i-TTL flash exposure with -0.3 stop compensation on SB-800.

At the Computer

A mouthful of bugs helps the medicine go down... Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. July 15, 2004.

Details to follow.

Conservation

A mouthful of bugs helps the medicine go down... Findlay Creek, BC, Canada. July 15, 2004.

Information to follow.