Get that down yer neck !

[John Robinson]

Green Woodpecker
Green Woodpeckers drink in a strange way. They have to hold the head straight up in order to get the water down unlike a lot of other birds which can “suck”it up. At least its gives some chances to get shots with the head still ! Its odd that out of all the clean water in the area they will often use the dirtiest bit of muddy puddle there is. You can see the wet end of the beak in this and the small hole he was drinking out of.
Hide at about 18 ft. Another of my pools- this one is in a red sandstone quarry.
Nikon D200
640^th sec @ f 9
800 ISO
Sigma 50-500 mm (Shows the lens can produce the goods with a tripod and good weather) The tripod is an adapted Army theodolite stand.
80% of full frame.
Neat image. PP in paint Shop Pro 7
Thanks for comments on last pic.
Cheers
JR

[Randy Stout]

Johnny:
I like the drinking pose and the story. Sharp and well exposed. Bird stands out well from the bg.

Because of the head angle, I could see a bit tighter crop from the right.

Cheers

Randy

[John Robinson]

Cheers Randy
Will do later.
JR

[Karl Egressy]

I don't recall this bird being posted here.
It is new for me for sure.
Great looking bird and an excellent image of it, Johnny.
The IQ is excellent and the drinking pose works here very well.

[William Dickson]

looks really good, reminds me of when i used to watch the green woodpeckers eating ants from the roadway

[John Robinson]

Thanks all.
heres one with some off the right WDYT
Cheers
JR

[Shawn Zierman]

Compositionally, the repost feels stronger to my visuals. More concise. Any woodpecker I've ever seen drink, uses this pose, but I've only seen about five species drink from a water source....Anyway, the pose is recognizable to me instantly as a drinking pose. Beautiful bird, well lit, and sharply rendered details. The NR or whatever blur filter you used on certain areas of the image, got a bit away from you in the water portion to the right of the bird, as it looks too smeary over there...

[John Robinson]

Hi Shawn
yes I agree.it was partly because I had to clone out my sinature when I reposted. It is there I see in the OP though.
thanks
JR

[Arthur Morris]

The bird is killer--sharp, perfectly exposed, and beautiful. The head is angled ever so slightly away. The background is killer too, in a different sort of way. Was the puddle in your backyard?

[John Robinson]

Hi Arthur
No I have 5 pools with hides scattered around (Well -I did have) This one was in a sand quarry but they levelled it and filled my liitle pool in. Another one someone spiked with a stick. Only three left now !!!
I had some wonderful times in that hide - sometimes I would be in it for 9 hours .- but we move on. If anyone is interested I can post pics of my hides and pools.
Cheers
JR
Cheers
JR

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks. As I believe I have mentioned before, a little bit of clean-up, here, getting rid of the rocks, will pay huge dividends.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Johnny, excellent detail, super sharp, and the light has brought out the colours nicely. Your repost works well, but I would still come up a little from the bottom.

[christopher galeski]

Great capture Johnny,one of your best IMO,great pose,nice light,sharp,TFS.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed, a difficult bird to get close to, I like the pose and the re crop looks better to me I would also tad a little bit off the base.
From a personal viewpoint I would tend not to clean up the background, I like the credibility of the image as it stands, I think it could look a little too clean once you start tidying up.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Johnny, excellent detail, super sharp, and the light has brought out the colours nicely. Your repost works well, but I would still come up a little from the bottom.

Hi Stu, For me, credibility here equals a butt ugly BKGR. In addition, I have suggested many times to John that with these images being made in his backyard that clean-up before he pushes the shutter button is the way to go.

[John Robinson]

Arthur
This one is in a field as I mentioned above and is quite a large puddle compared to the one in the wood here at the house.
Cleaning up the background would be a major effort as the many different species all need different areas which they prefer to drink or bathe in. You can bet your life if I clean one bit up they will use another. The other thing is they tend to look a bit "clinical" with nothing else in.
I remember once clearing away bits of earth like in this shot and 20 minutes later jackdaws were throwing them all over the place.

[Holger Leyrer]

Hi Jonny,

year for year i hope to make a photo from this shy bird. No luck.
Your Green Woodpecker is great. I like the light, details, and pose.

[Arthur Morris]

Arthur
This one is in a field as I mentioned above and is quite a large puddle compared to the one in the wood here at the house.
Cleaning up the background would be a major effort as the many different species all need different areas which they prefer to drink or bathe in. You can bet your life if I clean one bit up they will use another. The other thing is they tend to look a bit "clinical" with nothing else in.
I remember once clearing away bits of earth like in this shot and 20 minutes later jackdaws were throwing them all over the place.

Sorry--I thought that this one was in the yard...