Feathered friends

I seldom get the chance to photograph a white-breasted nuthatch. They are busy birds and get out of my way very quickly if I show up with my camera. I don't often have time nor the inclination to hang about waiting for them to return.

Not this day though. I had my little point and shoot Nikon camera in my pocket when I was heading out for a walk with the dogs and noticed one of these clown-like birds on one of the feeders. Clown-like because they do such funny acrobatic tricks like walking head down a tree or wall, or hanging upside down to grab seeds. They also have a different sound to their chatter - my father used to say it sounded like yank yank to him.

This bird eyed me suspiciously as I hid behind a screen of weeping birch branches (those are the reddish vertical lines on the right of the photo). But my patience was rewarded and it continued to grab a seed and then returned once again. This time joined by a friend.

A spritely chickadee joins the nuthatch, but the nuthatch does not seem to be impressed. It leaves shortly and the chickadee and several others of its species cheerfully visit one at a time.

Another chickadee selects seeds from the other side of this jerry-rigged feeder. You can see how I've used wire to hold it together, not being a great wood-worker. But perhaps come spring I'll learn how to use glue and nails more effectively than I did last year with this one.

I do have to chuckle sometimes at what  some situations such as repairing small things demands of my ingenuity. Not particularly pretty, but so far in this case effective. Thank goodness nothing heavy such as a squirrel or raccoon has tried to grab seeds from this particular feeder. The dogs and cats have been great deterrents to these creatures so far.

And I've been able to enjoy the many birds that visit daily. The feathered flock that meets to eat at my diners,  is large and has a number of different species. With this mild weather I hope to obtain more pictures of more varieties as we get closer to spring. Bird watching is certainly fun. And challenging to my photographic skills.

Hope you get to enjoy something fun and maybe challenging today as well as I will.