I made it back to Newton Hills State Park today fully equipped to blast away at any red-headed woodpeckers that came within view. The nest hole I spotted last week was in a tree at the bottom of a creek bed, and due to the steep banks it was pretty much impossible to get closer than about 50 yards. I was able to get this shot as the bird roosted in a closer tree, perhaps 30 yards. DSLR, 500mm lens, 1.4x converter. Click on images for larger versions.

I pointed my telescope at the nest hole and saw this little woodpecker peering back at me. This image was digiscoped through the telescope.

The last few times I have used my digiscoping setup (Televue 85 telescope, 20mm eyepiece, Canon G6 camera) have been chasing eagles at Squaw Creek NWR in Missouri, and they were miserable experiences for the most part. The two primary problems were moving subjects and wind. Since it takes so long to locate and focus on a subject, digiscoping is difficult unless you can predict exactly where the subject will be. And wind causes the scope to vibrate so much that the camera can't take a sharp image at the high magnification. Fortunately this morning at Newton Hills, there was very little wind and it was easy just to focus on the nest hole.