Birds…Animals…Do They Wonder about Us?

One of my passions is photography…and wildlife…as well as wetlands photography when I can find a cooperative model or an interesting, untouched part of Florida wetlands.   I am always in the frame of mind to find evasive creatures ….bring them in a  lens up-close…and making them  quite large when producing on canvas or paper.

  My living room has two pictures of birds that flew into my trees:

• An osprey with huge claws
  

  Florida Osprey Claws

•  A hawk with a blue claws and beak.

 Because we are not able to examine birds in real life up-close, I did not know they were blue until it was reproduced in color on canvas. 

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It was the morning that a bird came calling on me that made me wonder if they are as curious about us as we are about them?

  I was at my computer and heard a really loud tapping sound.  Looking at the direction the noise was coming….I saw him ….and he was looking at me!    (Where is the camera when you need it!!!)

Carefully, I got up and moved by the window….he flew.   It always happens.    I went to the other room; got the camera and on returning….he had come back….once again tapping as if to say,  “Hey, I’m Woody Woodpecker…come to see you…where did you go?”

There was a screen on the window and I knew, in photographing him, he would not be as clear as I wanted him to be.    Who cares….this was up-close and personal!  Not everyday do we get a visiting bird!

Click…click…and click again.   His red head was gleaming in the light.  My visitor was a Pileated Woodpecker…large…and beautiful.  (The Pileated Woodpecker is a very large North American woodpecker, roughly crow-sized, inhabiting deciduous forests in eastern North America.    Scientific Name is Dryocopus pileatus)

Was he really curious about my writing or why I was practically up in the tree tops in my second story window?    Probably not, but I doubt that I will get such a visit again.   One fuzzy shot was better than nothing to remember this special moment.

Hi! I’m Woody…may I come in?

Yes, Woody was clever, cute and a little bit of a “devil”     Enjoy!