It’s impossible to be in a bad mood while watching the antics of a Red-breasted Nuthatch. The spirited little birds feed in conifers and migrate when food is scarce, so I never know from year to year if they will head further south and spend the winter in my backyard.
The other day I was watching some chickadees fly back and forth from my feeders to the flowerbeds, stuffing seeds in every nook and cranny they could find. Suddenly, a Red-breasted Nuthatch plopped from the sky and landed on my peanut feeder. It was like a member of the family had stopped in for a surprise visit. Like a true bird geek I yelled out, “Welcome back!”
He wasted no time with pleasantries and immediately went to work caching seeds at double the speed of the chickadees.
Are the birds trying to tell me something about winter?