BackdoorArts
Senior Member
About 3 weeks ago we noticed a male Northern Flicker enlarging a hole in an old, dead tree just off our property. The top of the tree fell into our shed about 5 years ago in bad winds (thankfully minimal damage) so we left the rest for the birds and woodpeckers in particular, so it was nice to see the bird show.
(Side note: this dead stump also produces a huge crop of Chicken Of The Wood mushrooms every year - bonus!!)
When I saw the bird start working I attempted to take photographs with my D500 and 500mm from my garage, but it would bolt from the hole as soon as it saw me. So, I decided that I needed to set up a remote trigger. I used my Sigma 150-600mm Sport and a D500 body in order to get enough fps to capture wood flying, put my Vello FreeWave Plus RF trigger on with the remote set to bulb, which when the camera is on Constant High the first press starts firing and the second press stops. This got mounted on a tripod and set about 25-30 feet from the stump, and covered with a white t-shirt to keep the sun from beating on it. Depending on the weather I'll watch from either the garage (cool & windy) or the deck (otherwise) and fire when there's something worth shooting while also manning at least one other camera to catch the rest of the yard.
The male Flicker digs out the hole and if the female finds it acceptable she does the finishing and they move in, and thankfully this pair like the hole.
I've since swapped out the D500 for a D750 because I don't need to fps with the current activity, but the pair swap guarding the eggs (we've seen them mating several times) with the male doing evening thru mid-morning duty and the female doing afternoons. It'll be a couple weeks before we see babies, at which time the D500 will go back, but for now I like to have two of them with a 300mm on one and the 500mm on the other available as we're getting a lot of migrants and summer birds coming in.
Anyway, this is the setup (arrow pointing to their hole)...
...and this is my vantage point on the deck (as you can see I could shoot from there but it would be major cropping)...
Here are a few from the 2 weeks I've been doing this. I'm trying to be selective but I could post dozens already. I'll post more in this thread as I get stuff worth sharing. For non-bird nerds, the male Northern Flicker has a mustache and the female does not. This is the eastern variety which has a black mustache and a red 'V' or 'heart' on the back of the head. In the western US there is no color on the back of the head and the male's mustache is red. The yellow under the wings in east goes to an redish-orange in the west, Hence the eastern variety is referred to as 'Yellow-Shafted' and the western as 'Red-Shafted'.
(Side note: this dead stump also produces a huge crop of Chicken Of The Wood mushrooms every year - bonus!!)
When I saw the bird start working I attempted to take photographs with my D500 and 500mm from my garage, but it would bolt from the hole as soon as it saw me. So, I decided that I needed to set up a remote trigger. I used my Sigma 150-600mm Sport and a D500 body in order to get enough fps to capture wood flying, put my Vello FreeWave Plus RF trigger on with the remote set to bulb, which when the camera is on Constant High the first press starts firing and the second press stops. This got mounted on a tripod and set about 25-30 feet from the stump, and covered with a white t-shirt to keep the sun from beating on it. Depending on the weather I'll watch from either the garage (cool & windy) or the deck (otherwise) and fire when there's something worth shooting while also manning at least one other camera to catch the rest of the yard.
The male Flicker digs out the hole and if the female finds it acceptable she does the finishing and they move in, and thankfully this pair like the hole.
I've since swapped out the D500 for a D750 because I don't need to fps with the current activity, but the pair swap guarding the eggs (we've seen them mating several times) with the male doing evening thru mid-morning duty and the female doing afternoons. It'll be a couple weeks before we see babies, at which time the D500 will go back, but for now I like to have two of them with a 300mm on one and the 500mm on the other available as we're getting a lot of migrants and summer birds coming in.
Anyway, this is the setup (arrow pointing to their hole)...
...and this is my vantage point on the deck (as you can see I could shoot from there but it would be major cropping)...
Here are a few from the 2 weeks I've been doing this. I'm trying to be selective but I could post dozens already. I'll post more in this thread as I get stuff worth sharing. For non-bird nerds, the male Northern Flicker has a mustache and the female does not. This is the eastern variety which has a black mustache and a red 'V' or 'heart' on the back of the head. In the western US there is no color on the back of the head and the male's mustache is red. The yellow under the wings in east goes to an redish-orange in the west, Hence the eastern variety is referred to as 'Yellow-Shafted' and the western as 'Red-Shafted'.