Red-breasted Nuthatch

Usually, I prefer a nice, plain background for a shot like this, but I was out of luck on 7 November 2013. Saw this little Red-breasted Nuthatch male when I went with friends for a birding walk in the Bow Valley Ranche and Burnsmead areas of Fish Creek Park.

A photo from 4 March 2013 - doesn't it make you wonder how these tiny birds manage to survive the snow and frigid temperatures? Never fails to amaze me. Taken at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, which I believe is still closed due to the devastation caused by Alberta's Flood of the Century in June 2013. I only managed to upload the first of three images this evening. I don't remember ever having a problem with uploading before. Took forever for the second shot to finish and then I was told it didn't work. Eventually, after many tries, I chose another photo taken on the same day and it, too, is taking forever and I suspect that it isn't going to work.

So often, when I take photos deep within a forest or wooded area, my photos don't come out. On this particular day, 30 April 2014, the sun was actually shining right down on this little male Red-breasted Nuthatch who flew down to someone's hand (not MY hand). It's always such a thrill to have any wild bird on ones hand, whether it is a friendly little Black-capped Chickadee, a Boreal Chickadee, a Red- or a White-breasted Nuthatch, or even a little Downy Woodpecker - which feels amazing! Taken when I was on a morning walk with friends at South Glenmore Park. We walk down along the edge of the Glenmore Reservoir towards Weaselhead, then up through the forest and back along the top, paved pathway to the parking lot. Usually, pretty well all the birds we see are very, very distant, so I come home with very few photos. This time, I did manage to get this Nuthatch, a distant Loon, and a teeny Boreal Chorus Frog in full croak : ) "The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small passerine, measuring 4.5 in (11 cm) in length, with a wingspan of 8.5 in (22 cm) and a weight of 9.9 g (0.35 oz). Its back and uppertail are bluish, and its underparts rust-colored. It has a black cap and eye line and a white supercilium (eyebrow). Sexes are similarly plumaged, though females and youngsters have duller heads and paler underparts. The Red-breasted Nuthatch's call is high-pitched, nasal and weak. Transcribed as yenk or ink, they have been likened to a toy tin horn or a child's noisemaker. Its song is a slowly repeated series of clear, nasal, rising notes, transcribed as eeen eeen eeen." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_Nuthatch www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-breasted_nuthatch/id Yesterday, we had around 10" of snow and it's still snowing this morning. The sky is white, so we know there is more to come.

On 2 January 2015, I finally got to see this little partially leucistic, male Red-breasted Nuthatch down in Fish Creek Park. I have added a previously posted photo of a "normal" male Red-breasted Nuthatch in a comment box below, for comparison. "Many birders enjoy lifelong hobbies relying birds’ plumage alone to distinguish the hundreds of different species on their life lists, but not all birds have predictable plumage and conditions such as bird leucism can make identification more of a challenge. Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage have several color changes, including white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached; or overall white plumage with little or no color discernable. The degree of leucism, including the brightness of the white and the extent of pigment loss, will vary depending on the bird’s genetic makeup. Birds that show only white patches or sections of leucistic feathers – often in symmetrical patterns – are often called pied or piebald birds, while birds with fully white plumage are referred to as leucistic birds." From birding.about.com. birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/leucism.htm "An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch

Today's photo was taken two days ago, on 26 October 2015. I had timed my arrival at the park to coincide with the arrival back at the parking lot of various friends who had just been on a 3-hour walk. There was one particular bird I wanted to ask about, to know if they had managed to find it - and, no, they hadn't seen it. However, they had seen a Great Horned Owl not too far from the parking lot and friend Sandy very kindly said she would come back with me and show me the location. When the two of us got back to the cars, another friend was just arriving, I told her about the Great Horned Owl and offered to show her where it was, if I could find it again. Well, hardly surprising with my sense of direction and inability to find something again, we were out of luck. Sorry, Ursula, but at least you now knew the small area where it was perched (or had been perched - it could always have flown!). We continued to look for a bird we had hoped to find, but no luck, just like everyone else. We did find this leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch, though, and that was a nice sighting. "Many birders enjoy lifelong hobbies relying birds’ plumage alone to distinguish the hundreds of different species on their life lists, but not all birds have predictable plumage and conditions such as bird leucism can make identification more of a challenge. Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage have several color changes, including white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached; or overall white plumage with little or no color discernable. The degree of leucism, including the brightness of the white and the extent of pigment loss, will vary depending on the bird’s genetic makeup. Birds that show only white patches or sections of leucistic feathers – often in symmetrical patterns – are often called pied or piebald birds, while birds with fully white plumage are referred to as leucistic birds." From birding.about.com. birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/leucism.htm "An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch

In a comment box below, for comparison, I've added a previously posted photo of a "regular" Red-breasted Nuthatch taken on 30 April 2014. Today's photo was taken on 26 October 2015. I had timed my arrival at the park to coincide with the arrival back at the parking lot of various friends who had just been on a 3-hour walk. There was one particular bird I wanted to ask about, to know if they had managed to find it - and, no, they hadn't seen it. However, they had seen a Great Horned Owl not too far from the parking lot and friend Sandy very kindly said she would come back with me and show me the location. When the two of us got back to the cars, another friend was just arriving, I told her about the Great Horned Owl and offered to show her where it was, if I could find it again. Well, hardly surprising with my sense of direction and inability to find something again, we were out of luck. Sorry, Ursula, but at least you now knew the small area where it was perched (or had been perched - it could always have flown!). We continued to look for a bird we had hoped to find, but no luck, just like everyone else. We did find this leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch, though, and that was a nice sighting. By the way, apparently its name is Bob : ) "Many birders enjoy lifelong hobbies relying birds’ plumage alone to distinguish the hundreds of different species on their life lists, but not all birds have predictable plumage and conditions such as bird leucism can make identification more of a challenge. Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage have several color changes, including white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached; or overall white plumage with little or no color discernable. The degree of leucism, including the brightness of the white and the extent of pigment loss, will vary depending on the bird’s genetic makeup. Birds that show only white patches or sections of leucistic feathers – often in symmetrical patterns – are often called pied or piebald birds, while birds with fully white plumage are referred to as leucistic birds." From birding.about.com. birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/leucism.htm "An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch

In the afternoon of 8 November 2015, I pushed myself out the front door to go on a walk with birding friends. Knowing that I'm supposed to do a lot more walking than I do (which cuts into my Fickr time, sorry!) and also seeing that the weather forecast was for snow the next day, made the decision that much easier. We met at Votier's Flats in Fish Creek Park and walked eastwards to Shaw's Meadow, where we climbed the hill up to the houses that border the park. Managed to catch just this one shot of this speedy little Red-breasted Nuthatch male when we were walking through the forest down below. "An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch The final list of 14 bird species prepared by our leaders, Gus, Janet, Bernie and David: Bald Eagle-1 ad. Sharp-shinned Hawk- Ring-billed Gull-2 Downy Woodpecker-2 Hairy Woodpecker-1 Northern Flicker-2 Black-billed Magpie-8 Common Raven-11 Black-capped Chickadee-30+ Boreal Chickadee-2 Red-breasted Nuthatch-8 White-breasted Nuthatch-3 Red Crossbill-1 m Dark-eyed Junco-1 Red Squirrel-1 Mule Deer-4 After the walk, four of us went for coffee at Tim Horton's. I always enjoy this, just as much as the walk itself.

Something just isn't feeling right about Flickr yet again. Wondering if some of my photos are not showing up on some people's Contact page, like happened the day before yesterday. It snowed again last night. The temperature this morning (18 November 2015) is -4°C (windchill -11°C) and I suspect everywhere will be very slippery. In order to make this photo just about usable, I put it through a watercolour filter. In the original shot, the post and seeds were nice and sharp, but the little Red-breasted Nuthatch was rather blurry. The filter kind of evened things out a bit. "An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch Two days ago, 16 November 2015, would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. including this little Red-breasted Nuthatch. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was just about visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones that hang from the tops of tall Spruce trees. The list of birds seen: 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

Not MY hand, of course! Tuesday, 18 October 2016, and the temperature is 0°C (windchill -3°C) and it snowed again overnight. As dreary as can be outside, though the sun is supposed to come out this afternoon. This little male Red-breasted Nuthatch flew down to our leader's hand during a walk in South Glenmore Park, on 13 October 2016. A rather grainy image, as it was taken in the poor light of the forest on a very gloomy day. Like the Black-capped Chickadees, some Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches and, to a much lesser extent, Boreal Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers will fly to your hand in certain natural areas. It just depends on how used to humans the birds are. On this day, we walked from the sailing club west towards Weaselhead. When I walk in this area, it's usually for the fresh air and exercise. As far as the birds are concerned, everything tends to be over on the far side of the Glenmore Reservoir. It's no fun at all trying to photograph birds that are barely visible with the naked eye! On this day, some of those very distant specks turned out to be Surf Scoters and Western Grebes. The first part of our walk was along the rough trail near the edge of the water, and on our return walk, we used the main, paved path. It was during the latter half of the walk that we spotted something moving in the tall grasses. Really, all you could see at first was a pair of ears. It could easily have been someone's dog, but when a little more of it showed through the grass, we could see it was a beautiful Coyote. Lovely colouring and looking very healthy. I had to zoom right in and the light was awful, but I managed to get a shot or two. I will add our leader's list of species seen: S. Glenmore Reservoir, SW Calgary, 0915-1200, Thu13Oct2016. Completely overcast, calm -1 to 1°C 1. American Wigeon-1+ 2. Mallard-25 3. Ring-necked Duck-6+ 4. Scaup sp.-10+ 5. Surf Scoter-9+ 6. Bufflehead-20 7. Common Goldeneye-15 8. Common Merganser-3 9. Horned Grebe-50+ 10. Red-necked Grebe-1 11. Eared Grebe-2 12. Western Grebe-15 13. Sharp-shinned Hawk-1 14. American Coot-50+ 15. Bonaparte’s Gull-7 16. Herring Gull?-3 17. Downy Woodpecker-21 18. Northern Flicker-2 19. Blue Jay-2 20. Black-billed Magpie-10 21. American Crow-4 22. Common Raven-3 23. Black-capped Chickadee-30 24. Red-breasted Nuthatch-3 25. Brown Creeper-2 26. Hermit Thrush?-2 Red Squirrel 4 Coyote 1 After the walk, friend Sandy invited a couple of us back to her place for lunch. Very enjoyable and much-appreciated - thanks, Sandy!