This past Friday I was one of the SCVN guides for the last summer hike on Mt. Lemmon. Even though I generally have one of my cameras when being a guide, hiking and trying to photograph birds don’t go together, without a lot of luck.
Just below the Marshall Gulch Saddle, I spotted several Acorn Woodpecker flying among the towering dead trees that died from the Aspen fire eleven years ago. The acorn woodpecker is a beautiful bird, both in flight and perched on the side of a tree, so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to photograph them as the hiking group moved on. Knowing that my time was limited and that these birds were not into posing, in fact they prefer being on the opposite side of the tree from you, I began searching for photo opportunities. 
The above image might have worked if the auto-focused had locked in on the right object. After landing on the opposite side of the tree, I kept the camera pointed in the same direction when he appeared on the back-side of one of the tree limbs where I could see part of his body — my only shot is below and this time the focus was on the bird.
Not much of a shot, so I’m sharing the photo below from the blog, The Azure Gate. He’s more into birding, I’m just a photographer who has many passions. Plus, I was asking too much of my lens.
Acorn Woodpecker — Source: The Azure Gate
Filed under: Information, Nature, Photography Tagged: Acorn Woodpecker, Arizona, Marshall Gulch Saddle, Mount Lemmon, Outdoors, Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists, SCVN Friday Hikes, The Azure Gate
