Things you can do with a bathroom window

Enjoyed the glorious March sunshine this morning, it was a perfect day, cloudless and windless. I let the sun stream on my face while taking a walk in the forest, among the towering oaks, pines and maples. Buds are starting to develop, though there is still a long way to go... Birds are starting to get excited. Common grackles and robins have returned in the last week and now the mornings are a cacaphony of sound, grackles carrying the main tune.

After the walk I had lunch, and while eating this in the sunlit chair in the living room, a bird of an unusual kind visited the bird feeder in the front yard. I rushed to my camera bag, fired up my trusty Rebel and took about 10 shots with the Tamron 28-300 mm through the bathroom window.

Looking through the 'Birds of Ontario' book helped me make the identification: a red bellied woodpecker, rather rare in Ontario. It's a female. Whether or not the male is close by, I do not know. This species reaches the northern limits of its habitat right around Toronto, but is quite common across large portions of the US. In Ontario, it's only found in areas with large tracts of Carolinian forests. It is supposed to be found year round, but I ain't never seen no such critter before.

Update: the male was at the bird feeder this morning (2006/03/20). However, it got away before I was able to get a shot of it.

I did a quick copy from the camera into Picasa, then minor edits in Photoshop (cropping, sharpness, noise)

(By the way, you guys do know that double clicking on the picture produces a larger version?)