A pair of pileated woodpeckers dryocopus pileatus hang out regularly in the vicinity of Lake Chinnabee Recreation Area in the Talladega National Forest, just down the mountain from Cheaha State Park, Alabama’s highest point. These huge birds are nearly as large as a crow and are sometimes mistaken for the ivory-billed woodpecker, believed by many experts to be extinct, making this the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and large rectangular excavations in dead trees reveal its presence in forests across the continent, although try getting close enough to one to get a full frame sharp photograph. They are shy and elusive for the most part, and dip when they fly, making them hard to photograph in flight. I got a few frames of this one Saturday morning, from too far away, across the creek running out of Lake Chinnabee.

A U.S. Forest Service Recreation Area in the Talladega National Forest

Glynn Wilson

Click here or on the image to see a photo essay

An autumn view of the creek leading into Lake Chinnabee in the Talladega National Forest.

Glynn Wilson

Click here or on the image for a larger view

This red-bellied woodpecker [melanerpes carolinus], close cousin to the northern flicker, also known as the yellow-hammer, the state bird of Alabama, stopped by for a meal atop a pine tree by our campsite Saturday afternoon in Cheaha State Park in the lower Campground No. 2 near Cheaha Lake.

Glynn Wilson

While I was searching for a shot of the autumn color at Cheaha Lake on Saturday morning, three junior high cheerleaders spotted my big lens and came over to get their photo taken. Normally I would just send this to them for use on their Facebook pages, but this one turned out so good I figured it makes for a nice feature photo for a Sunday. I’ll add the names if they get in touch.

The WiFi connection at Cheaha State Park has been down for a couple of days, so sorry for the paltry updates this weekend. One more night and half-day off the grid in the Talladega National Forest and it’s back to the city on Tuesday. There’s some rain in the forecast, but I found an interesting place to launch the canoe. More photos and stories in a day or two.

BTW: My friend John came up with a new nickname for my 750mm Sigma lens: “Big, Black Moses.”

Glynn Wilson

This is the view of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama, in the Cheaha State Park from our campsite in Campground No. 2. There are the beginnings of autumn color here, mainly some reds in the dogwoods.

The winds were gusting so hard this morning there was no way to put the boat in the lake, so we found a more secluded site down lower and we’re checking the map for more photo opportunities this afternoon. The yellow-jackets are all over the place up here, so if you are allergic to bee stings, stay away. Otherwise, it is a nice fall day here on the mountaintop.

This foothill of the Appalachian Mountains rises 2,407 feet above sea level and is surrounded by the Talladega National Forest. The local Creek Indians named this place “Chaha,” meaning high place.

We have dubbed the ridge we are camping on, “Yellow-Jacket Ridge.” They really should do something about the bees. Too many to count.

Glynn Wilson

While setting up in the backyard bird blind to see what species I could photograph during the fall bird migration of 2011, this vibrant-colored blue jay [cyanocitta cristata] visited the bird bath and I was able to get quite a few shots. Pretty much every day, the large blue jays run other birds away from the bird bath when they are ready to drink or bathe by mimicking the call of the red-shouldered hawk. I’ve never seen any academic research on this, but I have witnessed it many times, so I know it to be true. (Click here or on the image to see a larger view.)

Glynn Wilson

For a sneak preview of a work in progress, hit this: Secret Vistas: The Waterfalls of Cloudland Canyon State Park

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains on the western edge of Lookout Mountain in the northwest corner of Georgia, just across the Alabama and Tennessee lines near the town of Rising Fawn, there is an incredibly scenic camping spot in the Cloudland Canyon State Park. We chose this site for the first fall camping outing of 2011 because it is only a short drive from Birmingham.

Showing off some rugged mountain geology from 800 to 1,980 feet above sea level with exceptional hiking, the park straddles a deep gorge cut into the mountain by Sitton Gulch Creek. Visitors come to see the twin waterfalls cascade over layers of sandstone and shale into the creek below.

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He Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll Too

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
– Bob Dylan

Glynn Wilson

Rowland Scherman at Art Folk, Inc., “We Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll” (See video, links and purchasing information below)

by Glynn Wilson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Running into Rowland Scherman at the “We Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll” show the other day made me think of a story I picked up from a professor who taught a class at the University of Alabama on the history of “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a story packed with advice about how to live life and succeed.

Scherman was in town for a special show at a downtown gallery since none of his works were included in the Birmingham Museum of Art show going by a similar name out of Brooklyn, New York. When I saw the announcement about the Museum of Art show, I planted the idea on Facebook to get Rowland back down here, since his name was not on the list of photographers and I knew he had some of the most iconic pictures from the beginnings of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

At the time Rowland was running Joe bar on Birmingham’s Southside in the early 1980s, I was a student of journalism and photography at the University of Alabama, fully engrossed in reading authors like Hunter S. Thompson, and ordering Bass Ale, because that’s what Thompson drank at the Watergate Hotel. Joe was about the only place in Birmingham you could get it then.

The professor in question, Jim Salem in Tuscaloosa, liked to say when the bus pulls up to the station, no matter what your dream, you better have your bags packed and be ready and willing to get on that bus and go. When opportunity knocks, that is, you get on the bus.

Photographer Rowland Scherman got on that bus, in 1957, and he’s still on it, although sometimes these days, it’s a train or a plane taking him to the big picture.

Let’s just say Rowland Scherman was there, for some of the most important cultural moments of the 1960s and beyond.

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Don’t Forget to Spring Forward

This male house finch [carpodacus mexicanus ] is ready for some spring weather too. This is a test of the new Sigma 150-500mm telephoto zoom lens. Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend. I may hit the road this weekend to do some more testing of the new lens.

The Central Alabama weather forecast for Saturday calls for sunny skies with a high temperature in the lower 70s and winds out of the southwest at 10 to 15 mph. It is expected to remain clear overnight with a low in the upper 40s.

Sunday should start out partly cloudy but conditions will grow to mostly cloudy in the afternoon, with a high temperature around 70 degrees. Winds will be out of the southwest at 5 to 10 mph. There is a 20 percent chance of rain showers overnight, with a low in the 50s. Southwest winds around 5 mph in the evening then becoming light.

Don’t forget to reset your clocks Sunday night to “spring forward” an hour. When it goes into effect each spring, clocks are moved forward by one hour at 2 a.m. standard time, and the time becomes 3 a.m. daylight savings time.

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