Red-bellied woodpecker and Rat snake

[Raul Quinones]

The rat snake was climbing a cypress tree when a woodpecker and two blue jays (outside of the frame) decided to harass the snake. The harassment was done by screaming at the poor snake. The snake decided to climb down and disappeared on the vegetation.

40D, 500mm f/4, 1.4TC, 580EX Flash, better beamer, tripod
1/100, F7.1, ISO 250, Flash -2

comments and recommendations are, as always, welcome
Raul

[Doug Brown]

Good eye Raul! Love the way the woodpecker is checking out the snake. Only wish we could see the whole snake. Thanks for posting!

[Sharna Lee]

I have to agree with Doug on wanting to see the whole snake.
But, this is a funny one indeed. I love the way the woodie is cocking his/her head to the side checking out the snake.
Good job in seeing and catching this.

Sharna

[Ramon M. Casares]

I would love to see the whole snake too, but hey... is a TERRIFIC image, story telling, and great!! I love it! Congratulations!

[Gerald Kelberg]

OK, so I'll be the contrary one - I like the story told by the interaction of the woodie and the snake and I really don't mind not seeing the whole of the snake - it is a bit irrelevant to the story. You could even go as far as to say that because you don't see the end of the tail, it makes that snake as long as your imagination...

Well done! Super image!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great behavior image. I think these snakes are bad news when they find nests. I wish for a bit more eye contact with the woodpecker.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi Gerald, I don't want to see the whole snake because of the story, but because the compostion, at least as my personal preference goes that is my thought, although as is is perfect, is already a terrific shot and I would love to have such an image in my archieve, but for a big print to frame and hang in a wall I think that the whole snake and with it, the wider look of this particular scene would look better that's all, just a matter of tastes an very personal preferences, but as I said, I LOVE it as is.

[Raul Quinones]

Thank you for comments.

I took a lot of shots, most went directly to the trash bin... as always I forgot to increase the ISO in low light conditions, lots of motion blurs.
I love snakes, as they probably help more birds than hurt them keeping the rodent population in balance which are also big enemies of nest.
As far as composition, this snake was really long, if I had include the whole snake, the birds details will have been completely lost. I try to get the complete snake with my other body/lens combo, but no keepers.

Saludos,
Raul

[Ramon M. Casares]

Thnaks for the feedback Raul. :)

[Eleanor Kee Wellman]

Interesting behaviour you captured, Raul! Good exposure for the conditions and good story shown.

About the composition. I agree that if you tried to show the whole animal you would lose the detail of the woodpecker. I wonder if you cropped the image from the bottom to just above the first big curve if it would be a more pleasing composition. This way the a lot of the snake is shown and appears that you could have missed a very small amount. If cropped higher the feeling would be that most of the snake is missing. So more of a horizontal composition, or square.

I do like it as is, though.

[Sudhir Shivaram]

WOW! A great event in nature captured. Nice composition.

[Gus Cobos]

Wow; a perfect Kodak Moment...:D Great capture Raul...:cool: