Northern Flicker

Maybe I am a latent hunter although I do not own a gun. But I find tremendous pleasure taking digital pictures of birds. They rarely pose and they seem shy and rarely sit still. They have an aversion to being in the nice bright sunlight and they want to be as far away as possible. But just makes it all the better because they are beautiful prizes to taken and not touched.

This Northern Flicker was an exception to the rule of challenge. He simply sat there in the sun and posed for me. It was a warm afternoon in November in Dead Horse State Park and I was simply sitting at a picnic table lost in what I like to think are my thoughts. I saw him 50 feet away and he let me get pretty close. If I were to tell the truth, I shot a dozen photos of him before I got this one.

Let me share one trick I use with bird photography. I used it this time. I took the first several photos from too far away to be useful, but Ii wanted something. He wasn’t even in the sunlight at the time. Then I took a few steps and shot a two more. I kept doing this until I got this photo. He seemed to think that I had gotten all I was entitled and he flew away then. I barely had a chance to say “than you”. That is strategy: shoot for what I can get and then try to improve upon it. I keep edging closer and sometimes I get great pictures. The other pictures; well it’s digital and who cares?