January 15, 2010 - 2
Cool sightings of the week:There are many woodpeckers and other birds that use the peanut feeders in this backyard. They come to the feeders, take their peanut booty with seeming pleasure and continue on with their day. I put the food out, they take it and eat it, the cycle is complete. And then there's this one particular white-breasted nuthatch, he's not content to be like the other birds and just take a peanut and go. No, he's got to be different than the rest, and not in such a good way. This little nuthatch pulls a peanut through the small metal wiring of the feeder, holds it out in front of itself, and proceeds to throw the nut on the ground. This process continues for some time with the bird tossing peanuts over and over as I watch from the window in frustration, wondering if he's ever going to just eat one. I'm not sure if it ever does. And he's completely messing up the whole food cycle thing. Well, here's the cool thing, to every adversity there is a side benefit. In this case, the multitude of other birds who are fast enough and clever enough to notice and take advantage of the easily accessible peanuts lying on the ground below the feeders. I've often seen blue-jays and titmice pick up any fallen nuts, but this week I saw a white-throated sparrow grab a big peanut in it's tiny beak and take off with it. I didn't even know they could eat peanuts! There ya go, the cycle is complete again. Finding good in adversity, and finding so many different backyard birds benefiting from the messy feeding habits of one particularly finicky white-breasted nuthatch this week was very cool!
Heard on WDVR FM every Friday at 3PM during Anything Goes!
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