F/6.3, 1/125, ISO 320.
Pileated Woodpecker
What does a house wear?
Address.
Interesting Fact: Pileated Woodpeckers forage in large, dead wood—standing dead trees, stumps, or logs lying on the forest floor. They make impressive rectangular excavations that can be a foot or more long and go deep inside the wood. These holes pursue the tunnels of carpenter ants, the woodpecker’s primary food. ( Pileated Woodpecker Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology )
F/10.0, 1/400, ISO 250.
Common Merganser
Did you hear the watermelon joke?
It’s pitful.
Interesting Fact: Common Mergansers spend much of their time afloat, loafing, fishing, and often sleeping on open water. They may form flocks of up to 75 individuals. They often swim in small groups along the shoreline, dipping their heads underwater to search for prey and then diving with a slight leap. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Merganser/lifehistory )
F/6.3, 1/125, ISO 640.
White-Tailed Deer
I give a dead battery away today…
Free of charge!
Interesting Fact: Males regrow their antlers every year. About one in 10,000 females also has antlers, although this is usually associated with freemartinism. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer )
F/ 7.1, 1/200, ISO 1600.
Pileated Woodpecker
When is it bad luck to be followed by a black cat?
When you’re a mouse.
Interesting Fact: When hammering into this soft wood, Pileated Woodpeckers use their long necks to pull far back from the tree, then make powerful strikes with their heavy bills, pulling with their feet to increase the strength of the blow. The sound is often audible as a heavy thunk, and large chips of wood collect on the ground below. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/lifehistory )
F/7.1, 1/160, ISO 320.
Wild Turkey
How do you make an egg laugh?
Tell it a yolk.
Interesting Fact: Despite their weight, wild turkeys, unlike their domesticated counterparts, are agile, fast fliers. In ideal habitat of open woodland or wooded grasslands,[20] they may fly beneath the canopy top and find perches. They usually fly close to the ground for no more than 400 m (a quarter mile). ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey )
F/7.1, 1/200, ISO 400.
Northern Flickers
Who do you call when a giant fly attacks the city?
The SWAT team.
Interesting Fact: Nests are generally placed 6-15 feet off the ground, but on rare occasions can be over 100 feet high. Northern Flickers have been known to nest in old burrows of Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/lifehistory )
F/6.3, 1/250, ISO 640.
Muskrat
Why is sex like math?
You add a bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and pray there’s no multiplying!
Interesting Fact: Muskrats provide an important food resource for many other animals, including mink, foxes, coyotes, wolves, lynx, bobcats, bears, eagles, snakes, alligators, and large owls and hawks. Otters, snapping turtles, and large fish such as pike prey on baby muskrats. Caribou and elk sometimes feed on the vegetation which makes up muskrat push-ups during the winter when other food is scarce for them.[24] In their introduced range in the former Soviet Union, the muskrat’s greatest predator is the golden jackal. They can be completely eradicated in shallow water bodies, and during the winter of 1948–49 in the Amu Darya (river in central Asia), muskrats constituted 12.3% of jackal faeces contents, and 71% of muskrat houses were destroyed by jackals, 16% of which froze and became unsuitable for muskrat occupation. Jackals also harm the muskrat industry by eating muskrats caught in traps or taking skins left out to dry. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat#Behavior )
F/8.0, 1/250, ISO 320.
Red-Eared Slider Turtles
Why did the nurse go to art school?
To learn how to draw blood!
Interesting Fact: Red-eared sliders are almost entirely aquatic, but as they are cold-blooded, they leave the water to sunbathe to regulate their temperature. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eared_slider )
F/9.0, 1/320, ISO 320.
Eastern Chipmunk
Why did the tiny ghost join the football team?
He heard they needed a little team spirit.
Interesting Fact: It has several bird-like or chattering calls; one is a trill at the rate of 130 vibrations per minute and another is a lower-pitched, clicking sound. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_chipmunk )
F/8.0, 1/250, ISO 500.
Northern Flicker
What is a mattress’ favorite season?
Spring.
Interesting Fact: Northern Flickers usually excavate nest holes in dead or diseased tree trunks or large branches. In northern North America look for nests in trembling aspens, which are susceptible to a heartrot that makes for easy excavation. Unlike many woodpeckers, flickers often reuse cavities that they or another species excavated in a previous year. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/lifehistory )
