The yellow-bellied sapsucker - using photography to see the beauty of what is around us.

This is the best photo of a yellow-bellied sapsucker I have taken so far.

It's always nice seeing a bird with lots of colour.  Often, though, it is just a flash of brilliant hues that are witnessed and then the moment is gone.  Ethereal.  And often enough not everyone in a group can witness the juncture.  It is difficult to appreciate the beauty of nature when it is seldom seen.  This is where having a camera comes in handy.

My friends, Ron and Judy in Lloydminster, have an amazing number of birds flying about their farm.  I had been awoken several morning by the sharp burst of sound coming from a woodpecker drumming away at a log or piece of metal.  I have looked for the culprit to no avail and my hosts were similarly stymied.  And then, one afternoon, a flash of colour and the familiar rat-a-tat-tat on pole everything came into place.

My camera at the ready, I took two dozen or more photos of the birds.  Yes, birds; there was more than one.  A male, shown above, and a juvenile.  I didn't get a great shot of the youngster as it hid behind a pole most of the time, but the male provided an excellent profile.  Female yellow-bellied sapsuckers don't have the red throat present on the males, and juveniles have no colour at all to speak of (see below).   It was the male though that I had caught, and the eyes of my hosts were widened by the beautiful creature that had been so elusive.

Juvenile yellow-bellied sapsucker.

There are many reasons why I enjoy photography.  One in particular that this event illustrated was its ability to show others what is around us.  A glimpse is often all we get of nature around us.  The camera allows us to take that moment and make it something more.  And then we can share it.  How amazing is that!

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Harjit Bahia - Science teacher and colleague from Garibaldi died August 2, 2024

Image
You will be missed Mr. Bahia.  You made a difference and we are sad you are gone. I keep in loose contact with my fellow retired teachers from Garibaldi Secondary School.  I talked with my long-time friend, Mike Lynch, today, and discovered that Hargit died over the summer.  Unbeknownst to him, he had an underlying heart condition and passed away after working out on his treadmill.  The date was August 2, 2024. I was shocked to hear this.  He was only 49 years old, turning 50 some 3 months later.  It was a shock to everyone, for he was loved by all who knew him.  As a teacher, Mr. Bahia was kind and fun.  He contributed to students in many ways and was always available to help those in need.   For myself, I knew him as a fellow science teacher and taught in the adjoining room to him.  He was always available to help, share ideas, and work together.  Easy to approach, I found that I could talk to him about anything and appreciat...
Read more

I found a black widow spider in a plant pot today

Image
The spider I found is a western black widow spider, one of three species of black widow that occur in North America.  The fact that this one has another red patch on the back of its abdomen above the spinnerettes tells us that it is an immature individual. The one thing that people know about black widow spiders is that they are extremely poisonous.  Their venom is something like 15x more toxic than that of a rattlesnake.  The saving grace is that there is very little venom injected from a black widow bite than what a rattlesnake can deliver.   The good news is that black widow bites seldom lead to death.  You are more likely to suffer nausea, muscle pain, and swelling around the bite.  Symptoms usually last only 12 hours or so.  Death may be a result in people with compromised immune systems or in the very young or the elderly.   In 2018, it was reported that there were 1015 cases of people bitten by black widows.  Of those, there ...
Read more

Mountain Bluebird - out of the blue.

Image
Mountain Bluebird photographed near Princeton, BC. While camping at a resort near Princeton, BC, I had a chance to visit a wildlife refuge that was nearby.  There are about 5 km of trails there and it took me two days to cover them all.  That may sound like an unreasonably slow rate of progression, but I took several hundred images during my time there and did a fair amount of step retracing.  The end result was the opportunity to get some great hiking in and see three bird species I have never encountered before. On the first day, I saw and photographed a pygmy nuthatch.  I have seen the white-breasted and red-breasted varieties but never this species.  The second day caught me completely off guard, as within the span of 30 seconds I saw the other two, a Bullock's oriole and a mountain bluebird.  It was a stunning discovery, for me anyway, and I can still feel the thrill of the moment thinking back on it.  Many of you may think this a bit odd, t...
Read more