Flicker

[Ian Cassell]

Flicker feeding at the shore of Lake Tahoe. This is one of the few ground-feeding woodpeckers.

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L HH
1/800 sec f/6.3 ISO 800
Crop for composition, levels, sharpening, and cloning a few stray twigs in CS5

[Joel Eade]

Ian,

I like the composition and the behavior depicted is interesting as well. The image is technically sound in terms of exposure and sharpness, it looks just a tad too bright and the patch of snow is a bit distracting to my eye.

I have seen these in the woods behind my house but in 3 years of trying I have not lured one yet to my feeders/setup

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Ian, these are handsome birds and always a treat to find in the viewfinder. The environment is a bit cluttered in this shot, but you basic exposure and color rendition are good. The image seems a bit soft overall, maybe a tad more sharpening?

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks. Kerry, I'll have to look again on my good monitor when I get home. It was pretty sharp in the original, but maybe something happened when I posted.