I was sorting images a few hours back, which often results in finding a few more pics to post, and indeed did; moreover, it falls in line with the ‘Just Once’ topic, since it was featured earlier this year.
That’s a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius,) snagged while out chasing wood ducks the other day, on a tree right alongside the pond – shame it wouldn’t get out in the open. I couldn’t see it well enough to identify it, but recall thinking it needed a closer look while initially reviewing it upon unloading the card, then forgetting about it. When I was out there, I believed it to be a downy woodpecker, so just fired off a couple of frames and ignored it, especially since it wasn’t getting into the light. I can be excused, because even at 600mm, the full frame looked like this:
I heard the pecking, and spotted it as it flew to this perch, but the only way I could determine by naked eye that I was looking at the right bird was the upright, trunk-clinging position.
That makes two of the featured ‘Just Once’ species that I ended up duplicating within a few months of posting – the other was an eastern kingsnake less than a month ago. But I also ruled out another candidate, one of the species from my list, before I had a chance to post it, since I photographed it for the second time earlier this year, after having gone eleven years since I’d first seen it (though only eight from when I actually posted about it; the images had been published at BugGuide.net to identify the species.)
Annnddd in looking at the spreadsheet of candidates, I found another that slipped my mind: this eastern cicada-killer received its second feature this year and dropped off the list. So that’s four. Less than a month to remove another – can it be done?