Big Reds

I'd never seen two of these big pileated woodpeckers this close together before. I saw one of these guys (they're both guys, actually, father & son, I'd guess) fly into a tree behind the local WalMart. I pulled over and grabbed the camera. As I got closer, I realized there were two in the tree eating some sort of fruit. I didn't get too much closer before one of them flew off into a nearby palm tree, but I watched the one eat for another ten minutes. That one, possibly the younger of the two, didn't seem to have any fear of me and my big camera.

Fakes

I know a fake when I see one. And that's how I knew that these two so-called Statues of Liberty weren't the real thing. For one thing, the one above is made of jelly beans. There's not way it could have survived sitting in New York harbor for all these years if it were made of candy. The seagulls alone would have reduced it to a shadow of it's former self. And the one below? Well, it's not in New York harbor, so how could it be real?

Yes, yes, I admit it, I actually shot both of these in Las Vegas, and both at the New York, New York resort. They try to fool you into thinking you're really in New York, but it's not so easy to do.