{"id":48126,"date":"2017-08-16T05:22:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T11:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=48126"},"modified":"2025-02-24T14:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:02:10","slug":"red-naped-sapsucker-diving-away-from-nesting-cavity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/08\/16\/red-naped-sapsucker-diving-away-from-nesting-cavity\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-naped Sapsucker Diving Away From Nesting Cavity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month I wrote about the difficult time I had photographing Red-naped Sapsuckers on July 11th<\/span><\/a> in Idaho. I mentioned how the extremes in lighting conditions ruined the evening of shooting for me because I had to focus more on setting exposure levels than enjoying photographing the birds and how my frustration level was extremely high.<\/p>\n

\"Red-napedRed-naped Sapsucker flying away from its nesting cavity – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/8000, ISO 1600, -4.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It ranked between number #1 and #2 of my worst shooting days ever. I was ready to go rogue (shoot from outside the mobile blind) or go home.<\/p>\n

I am working hard on getting caught up on culling images and came across the folder with the images of the Red-naped Sapsuckers at the cavity that evening that frustrated me so deeply. It was such a disappointing time for me that I didn’t even want to go through the images I took that night.<\/p>\n

I took well over 1000 images of the birds that evening as the sapsuckers flew into the nesting cavity to feed their young chick and I deleted them one after another as I scrolled through them. I could feel how crushed I was that evening all over again, out of more than a thousand images I kept 15 and most of those were just for documentation.<\/p>\n

But I did find one jewel in the images, a photo of one of the adult Red-naped Sapsuckers flying away from the nesting cavity looking like a bullet. One gem amongst the thousand I tossed onto my digital darkroom floor.<\/p>\n

I just don’t know if this single photo is worth the frustration level I felt that evening or how sitting in the direct sunlight made me feel like I was dizzily on the edge collapsing because of the heat (my phone stopped functioning it was so hot) but at least I got one decent image from that frustrating evening. One.<\/p>\n

Seriously, I should have just jumped out of the pickup with my tripod and photographed exactly how I wanted to.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-naped Sapsucker photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did find one jewel in the images, a photo of one of the adult Red-naped Sapsuckers flying away from the nesting cavity looking like a bullet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2578,2244,2141,2261],"tags":[4004,6033,6034,4159,6035,4052,4122,5370,2580,2144,5847,3094,2145,4777,2146],"class_list":["post-48126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-clark-county","category-idaho","category-red-naped-sapsuckers","category-targhee-national-forest","tag-adult","tag-bounding-flight","tag-bullet","tag-diving","tag-diving-flight","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-forest","tag-nesting-cavity","tag-red-naped-sapsucker","tag-sapsucker","tag-sapsuckers","tag-sphyrapicus-nuchalis","tag-woodpecker","tag-woodpeckers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-naped-sapsucker-airborne-mia-mcpherson-2238.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cwe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15316,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/07\/04\/the-magical-sapsucker-tree-in-clark-county-idaho\/","url_meta":{"origin":48126,"position":0},"title":"The Magical Sapsucker Tree in Clark County, Idaho","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A month ago I photographed a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers excavating a nesting cavity in Idaho and this past week I spent several days photographing them again.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Williamson's Sapsucker leaving the nesting cavity, Targhee National Forest, Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/williamsons-sapsucker-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-8491.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/williamsons-sapsucker-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-8491.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-at-nesting-cavity-mia-mcpherson-3759.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-at-nesting-cavity-mia-mcpherson-3759.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-at-nesting-cavity-mia-mcpherson-3759.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-at-nesting-cavity-mia-mcpherson-3759.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15330,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/07\/06\/red-naped-sapsuckers-of-clark-county-idaho\/","url_meta":{"origin":48126,"position":2},"title":"Red-naped Sapsuckers of Clark County, Idaho","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a Sapsuckery trip to Montana and Idaho last week, with Red-naped and Williamson's Sapsuckers at their nesting cavities","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-naped Sapsucker male, Targhee National Forest, Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-naped-sapsucker-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-7265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-naped-sapsucker-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-7265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-naped-sapsucker-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-7265.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-food-chicks-mia-mcpherson-9018.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-food-chicks-mia-mcpherson-9018.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-food-chicks-mia-mcpherson-9018.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-food-chicks-mia-mcpherson-9018.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47668,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/07\/14\/adult-red-naped-sapsucker-feeding-its-chick-at-the-nesting-cavity\/","url_meta":{"origin":48126,"position":4},"title":"Adult Red-naped Sapsucker Feeding its Chick at the Nesting Cavity","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Although photographing the Red-naped Sapsuckers at the nesting cavity has been frustrating at times it has also been very rewarding to observe all the action of the sapsucker family.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-naped Sapsucker feeding its chick, Targhee National Forest, Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-chick-adult-mia-mcpherson-3540.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-naped-sapsucker-chick-adult-mia-mcpherson-3540.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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