About the Image(s)

Location: Henniker, New Hampshire
Shot: May 2025
Photographer: Grace Dunklee Cohen
Gear: Canon Canon R5 RF 100-500
Settings: 1/3200 - f / 7.1 handheld
For the past several years we’ve had these lovely birds as neighbors and to my delight, this year
they nested nearby - with no camera obstructions.
I had to do a lot of light balancing as most of my skyward shots were highly backlit, and at
shooting at 500 added grain (even with Topaz NoNoise AI applied) to my tightly cropped
images. But I patiently wait for these doting parents to come and go ??“ and am sometimes
rewarded for my efforts.
Sidenote: When my first copy of Birds of North America was published in 1972, Red-Bellied
Woodpeckers ranged as far north as Maryland ??“ the Mid-Atlantic coast. I first saw one in New
Hampshire in the early 2000’s. They are now quite at home here now ??“ nesting in the many
dead ash trees that succumbed to Emerald Ash Borers - and welcome visitors to my
hummingbird feeders (yes!)