Hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus)

Just two or three days before making this photo, I had an encounter with the same species in a remote part of Banff National Park. I wanted to get a picture of the bird in the pose you see here and set up my equipment close to where I had seen the bird hacking into a trunk. I had already noticed that the bird was very shy and therefore I hid underneath a camouflage blanket. I waited for at least an hour without ever seeing the woodpecker, even though I did hear it calling at times. Eventually I had to leave the area when three bull elk appeared in the wood and came right toward me. The shoulderheight of a fullgrown elk is about 1.5 meters and these three were not far off that mark. Even though they were without antlers in this time of year, they were too curious, too boisterous and definitely also too big to ignore. Seeing them looming up so suddenly from within that blanket with its limited view really got my heart pumping, knowing that these animals, though usually not aggressive, can be grumpy and they injure many more people each year than bears, wolves and cougars together. There was no time to get out from under the camouflage blanket because of all the zippers and pins to keep things in place, and so I had to retreat with that thing still hanging over me and the tripod-mounted camera. Doing that over a forest floor covered with dead trunks and branches everywhere was not easy, certainly not while being pushed backward by three animals of well over 300 kilos each at just 20 meters distance. The elk did not seem to know what to make of that strange shape suddenly getting up and moving away from them and after their first surprise and curious advances, they lost interest and I got my chance to get out from under the fabric and find my way around the animals. So unfortunately I did not get my shot of the woodpecker that day.

Two days later however, I visited a friend and her two kids in Calgary and we went to Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, which is a park just outside the busy center of Calgary. And what do you know... we heard drumming, saw the bird in the distance and of course I cautioned the kids to be quiet because otherwise we would scare away the bird. When we got closer, we noticed that other people had also seen the bird and were approaching it talking excitedly about it and I despaired... only to find out that the bird didn't seem to mind the family talking and pointing less than ten meters away from it! When the four of us came closer, the bird still seemed oblivious of our presence. I had time to unpack my camera, set up the tripod and then shoot for at least five minutes before it flew to another trunk less than ten meters away.

Somtimes the difference in attidude of animals that are or are not used to people is amazing. Their ability to adapt to us and to the way we change the habitats where they have been living for many thousands of years before we arrived is impressive. It is good that they can, because otherwise cities would be even more unnatural than they are now, but we should not forget that some animals cannot keep up with those changes and as we develop more and more areas around us, we impoverish the natural values through this proces. The animals that can adapt will remain, but the animals that cannot will be pushed out and disappear from the area. This gives the adapting species more space, which makes them more common and this creates an enormous shift in the natural balance, which sometimes is far from positive.

The woodpeckers are unlikely to become a big problem, but a famous example can be found in and around the town of Banff and many other similar places. Large predators like bears, wolves and cougars either have trouble adapting to the changes, or they are simply not allowed into the area claimed by humans. This meant that the elk in the area started noticing that the town and its direct surroundings were relatively safe. Even though these places were noisy and busy, they could manage to find enough food and the best thing was that their natural predators mostly avoided the area. That way the elk could reproduce much faster and their population grew dramatically. Instead of in the mountains and valleys, they now spend a lot of their time along the highway, on the golf course and even in the busy streets of town, making the roads unsafe and becoming something of a pest in the town, where they destroy gardens and are a danger to unsavvy tourists who sometimes want to pose with the animals for a nice shot to take home. There is even a case on record where a father tried placing his 4-year old son on the back of a +300 kg wild bull elk with the intention of stepping back and snapping a shot! Fortnately he was called back in time by a local, otherwise it would probably have ended in a very ugly way!

Image number: ASP6459AWBC