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up close and personal with a red breasted nuthatch
- To: "'carolinabirds@duke.edu'" <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: up close and personal with a red breasted nuthatch
- From: "Travis, Ginger" <Ginger@athena.dev.unc.edu>
- Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 16:19:39 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Today at lunchtime I was standing on top of a stepladder trying to change
the position of a suet feeder on a dead cedar in my yard. A bird flew to the
top of the cedar, 8 feet above my head, and I looked up and saw a red
breasted nuthatch (one of a pair that seems to have settled in). I held
still, grasping the cedar trunk with one hand, my other hand wrapped around
the suet feeder. Suddenly the nuthatch flew down to the suet feeder, clung
to the side of the basket opposite my hand, and began to dig away in the
suet cake. (These little guys have fed voraciously on suet since they
discovered it this week.) I could feel the pressure of the suet against my
hand as the nuthatch whacked away at it. And the bird was so close to my
face that I couldn't focus on it well -- I wished for my reading glasses!
The nuthatch ate and I watched it for maybe 30 seconds before it flew, but
it seemed like a really long time. Now that the experience is over it's
kind of blur. Mostly what's left in my mind is, Wow!
Ginger_Travis@unc.edu
near Chapel Hill, N.C.