German Sausage Dinner and Woodpeckers

Yesterday was our annual "German Sausage Dinner". This is a fund-raiser and community event sponsored by my church. Most of the churches in our small community have similar events where the community can come together to eat and visit. Of course, when you're the sponsor there's a lot of work involved (but it's a lot of fun too!).

One activity that everyone enjoys is the Silent Auction. This year I submitted three photographs, two Northern Cardinals (see "Yard Birds" for similar shots), and "Hawk on a Cross" (another view of the bird in "Sunday Birding"). All three sold well, which was really exciting for me, and good for the fund raiser as well.

The other interesting thing that happened was some of the folks there told me that there was a large red-headed woodpecker out front just before I came. I asked, "Was it big? Was it a Pileated?" Of course they all said yes! Well, I should know better than ask two questions at once. ;-)

I've been reading about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker lately. I doubt I'll ever see one (since they may or may not be extinct), but we had a pair of their cousins, the pileated woodpeckers nesting in our yard a few years ago. Of course, we weren't photographing birds back then, so I don't have any pictures. I would really like to get some shots of some pileated woodpeckers -- who knows, I might make a discovery and find they are actually ivory-bills! (One can dream!)

Anyway, this morning after church, I was visiting with some folks when I saw a woodpecker on a tree. It looked like a red-bellied woodpecker. I was disappointed (though I shouldn't have been, I don't think I have that one on my life-list!!). Even so, I'll have to keep an eye out. Maybe I'll get a shot of it soon.