Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving

May we all have enough, and be able to find it when the snow comes. And may we be thankful for what we have and aware of the needs of those around us – whatever their species.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Nuthatches in November

Last weekend I spent quite a while watching both white-breasted nuthatches and the smaller red-breasted nuthatches at our feeders. We've commonly been seeing a pair of each -- the males with their black caps and the females with their blue-gray caps. The light was coming from the southeast, passing through the coiled wire wreath-shaped whole-peanut feeder to cast interesting shadows on the birds on the shelled-peanut feeder. Here are some shots from that morning. (To save space in the captions, I use the four-letter "alpha codes" for these birds: WBNU - white-breasted nuthatch and RBNU = red-breasted nuthatch.)

As always, click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Male WBNU - note the crossed primaries (longest wing feathers)

Female WBNU checking her surroundings

Female WBNU in the less-common head-up position. Look at the span of that foot!

Her tongue is visible here -- it's as pointed as her bill

See the spiral shadow -- and a nice view of the strong bill

Female red-breasted nuthatch 

RBNU with spiral shadow
Other posts about nuthatches: