I have been seeing a lot of woodpecker sign this Spring and every once in awhile I spook the Pileated Woodpeckers while walking the dog...there is always two. On this late sunny afternoon in early April, my son happened to notice that we had a visitor on the tree stump in the backyard. I managed to grab the camera and start taking a few photos through the glass window in our backdoor. After several minutes, the bird seemed engrossed in his work, so I began to work my way outdoors and into the backyard to reach a better vantage point to take photos. To my surprise, the bird continued to peck away as I crept closer. 

All the photos were taken handheld with the Canon 7D Mark II and the Canon EF 100-400MM F/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens and post-processed in Adobe Lightroom for exposure and contrast. A few images were cropped to minimize the background distractions.

Had I been willing to get wet and muddy, I probably could have gotten closer since the bird stayed in the yard for about twenty minutes in total. As it was, I was content to shoot from the bottom of our back stairs about 40 feet away.

Thanks for stopping by today!