I have missed a few too many fantastic photo opportunities over the past few years by not bringing a camera with me on shorter outings like our daily dog walks or by having the wrong lens mounted on the camera. I was inclined to not bring a camera with me on what was planned to be a very short dog walk. As I was about to walk out the door I remembered how the previous day I missed some nice opportunities with starlings in their breeding plumage, so I turned back to grab my crop camera at the last minute. As we entered the woods a few minutes later we encountered this male Pileated Woodpecker working a log at close range. He then jumped up onto this stump and froze for almost half a minute. A fantastic photo opportunity not missed this time.

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