Daddy and His Boy

I am so pleased to have had this opportunity not only to see this behavior but shoot it as well with great company of my friend Marina. I discovered this downy woodpecker nest a week before while looking for a pileated nest with fledlings. The pileated were gone but while looking I heard the cries of these chicks and located the nest. I shot the next day with no success and still using my 40 D I was not able to get the ss I wanted so I wasn't too sure I would get a good shot ever as the light just wasn't cooperating. Marina and I decided to go out this day with hopes that the chicks hadn't fledged. They were still there and again the light was not good. This time I took a ladder for better height and got closer to the nest. I decided to push the camera to the limit at ISO 800 to get a decent ss. I am pretty happy with this shot. We went back today with great light and the chicks were gone, but not exactly. Minutes later we heard them only to find them in nearby trees with mom and dad teaching them the ropes. It was pretty awesome to see it and share the moment with a friend.
Canon 40D 300 mm2.8 L IS w 2X
ISO 800 f9 @1/200
Noise reduction and sharpening applied tweaking done with Nik software. Cropped to vertical