Remote Camera Pictures

from February 11 & 13, 2008


I found a tree with several fresh conical pits - either feeding sites or cavity starts - and deployed a Reconyx camera to monitor it.

Woodpecker excavations in a tree

The tree was visited regularly by Pileated Woodpeckers. The camera was set for a time lapse interval of 12 seconds, but I also enabled the motion-detection feature of the camera.

The first four pictures below were taken as a result of motion detection, as indicated by the "M" in the left border. This was a pleasant surprise since these birds were somewhat further away than the 5 meter maximum detection distance I had previously assumed. The bottom two pictures were caught by time lapse, as indicated by the "T" in the left border.

Pilieated Woodpecker

Pilieated Woodpecker

The picture above and the one below were taken approximately one second apart by the "rapid-fire" motion-detection setting.

Pilieated Woodpecker

Pilieated Woodpecker

Pilieated Woodpecker

Pilieated Woodpecker

This tree was actively used by two PIWOs during the camera deployment period. On two different days a PIWO was on the tree for 2.5 hours continuously, each time joined by a second PIWO for part of that time.