January - February 2010

WINTER AT ITS BEST

Black Woodpecker Dryocopus martius

The Black Woodpecker is one of the most colourful inhabitants of the forest. You rarely get to see it, more often you hear the brisk flying hoot kry-kry-ry... that often ends in a long kliiie- scream. By then the bird is alredy sitting on a tree trunk. Its vigourous hoots inform that the sovereign of the area is on the move. A black woodpecker couple occupy a large territory all year round.

This wilderness bird has somewhat adjusted to a life among people. It might nest close to habitation,
because there might be a shortage of big enough nesting trees in the forest these days.

Nowadays, they are quite used to getting their food from stumps left on felling areas. Their main nutrition, carpenter ants, withdraw to the tree roots in witer. That means difficult times for black woodpeckers. First, the snow must be cleared, and then the tree chopped, and then with the help of their long tongue, they are able to get to the carpenter ants.
On snowy, cold winters like the current one, black woodpeckers die of cold and hunger.

Technique: Canon EOS V, 4/600mm, hide, tripod, Fuji Provia 400
Posio, Korouoma, February 2008