A Shadow of Itself

This beautiful male pileated woodpecker was only concerned about one thing: breakfast. The early morning sun, low in the southeastern horizon, brightly highlighted North America’s biggest woodpecker just before the winter solstice of 2014. The angle allowed the bird’s shadow and that of the peanut butter suet feeder to be cast on the trunk of the old sugar maple in our backyard near Mt. Hope, Ohio. The pileated woodpeckers came to our feeders year-round, even bringing their young to our home in Ohio’s Amish country. Those birds would be in the top 10 things that I miss since we moved to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley two and a half years ago.

“A Shadow of Itself” is my Photo of the Week.

Author: Bruce Stambaugh

Writer, marketer, columnist, author, photographer, birder, walker, hiker, husband, father, grandfather, brother, son, township trustee, converted Anabaptist, community activist, my life is crammed with all things people and nature and wonder. My late father gave me this penchant for giving and getting the most out of life, my late mother the courtesy, kindness, and creativity to see the joy in life. They both taught me to cherish the people I am with. I try and fail and try again. View all posts by Bruce Stambaugh

3 thoughts on “A Shadow of Itself”

Thanks for sharing Bruce, we have them year round on our suet feeder as well.
Beautiful Creature in my mind!

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Bruce Stambaugh says:

December 19, 2019 at 3:04 pm

Indeed they are. I miss them.

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I have been stymied in trying to capture a photo of this bird! I keep seeing the blur as it leaves a feeder, etc. With a zoom and enlarging on the computer, my suspicions were correct about the bird ID, but it was a mere silhouette! I did get a nice photo of it’s “cousin” in Bangladesh, though.

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