Downy Woodpecker

The weekend before last, my daughter spotted a woodpecker as we were leaving for a day with the family. Obviously, the wildlife enthusiast that I am, had to go get my camera. She was still hanging around when we got back, but was no longer hammering away at the tree like she was in the pictures. I guess she found her snacks! ;) I got as many pictures as I could of her (which was hard, because the valley she's in next to my home is packed with dense underbrush, even in the winter).

So without further ado, meet Becky (my daughter named her) the female Eastern Downy Woodpecker.

Here Becky is, getting ready to strip more bark from this tree.

Becky wants to make sure she has the best possible angle for finding the tastiest of snacks.

Becky sounds a bit like a mini jackhammer as she pummels this poor tree.

Becky finally starts stepping out into the sun, and giving us a nice top-down view of her plumage.

Pictures were taken with a Canon T7i with a 250 mm lens, an f-stop of 8, ISO at 400 and the last photo at ISO 800 , and a shutter speed of 1/320s