Pretty light stuff today. Just a picture to share, really. This fellow, a White-Breasted Nuthatch, kept visiting my feeder the other morning. He’d fly in, grab seed, fly to a nearby tree, crack it open, return the feeder and repeat the entire process. He was fun to watch, but it sure seemed like an awful lot of energy to expend for that little seed. I guess that’s why they have to keep on eating all day!
He was a bit challenging to photograph because they do not stay in one place for very long at all. As a matter of fact, I had to focus manually and do a bit of pre-focusing because by the time that the auto focus could react, he’d already grabbed the seed and flown off. After a couple of auto focus failures, I gave up and kicked it old school with a bit of pre-focusing! Sometimes the old school beats the new school!
I identified this bird at my favorite bird identification site, Whatbird.com. If you are interested in identifying birds, give them a try.
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3 Responses to “Frequent Flier”
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What a lovely shot. It makes me smile. And, of course, a thoughtful and valuable photo tip to go with it. That green background is just delicious. Congratulations and thanks.
Paul, the only rule of photography is that there are no rules.
You’ve proven it with this wonderful image. I like the uniqueness of the positioning–it’s rare I see a bird perched on a vertical branch. I like the balancing act! (Beautiful shade of green background, too! Wow.)
@Anita, thanks! He makes me smile, too.
@Bonnie: This bird seems to prefer this orientation. When he flies back to a nearby tree, it’s always a certain, dead, slanted tree. He then runs up the side of it, like a squirrel, and then cracks the nut open, eats it, and then returns for another one.
This branch is one that I attached to the arm of the feeder because it is more picturesque than the iron arm.
It is, indeed, pointing towards the feeder. This guy lands at the top of the branch, walks down the slope, then jumps off onto the feeder. Rarely does he fly directly to the feeder.
The green comes from a stand of trees that are some 50 feet away, making the perfect background.