Amid the crowds of Pine Siskins, doves, grackles, orioles, and grosbeaks at Laureen's feeders (following a late spring snowstorm - see previous two photos for description), at least one Red-breasted Nuthatch made an appearance. I watched it make several trips, snatching a seed and quickly flying away. When it worked its way down a tree trunk - typical nuthatch behaviour - I thought it was searching for insects and larvae hidden in cracks in the bark. Evidently not.
Red-breasted Nuthatches cache seeds for later retrieval. I caught this one doing exactly that; it must have been hiding the seed in its crop. At the time, I thought it had found an insect. Only during processing, viewing the image full size, did I realize what it was up to. Caching is more common in late summer and fall - yes, nuthatches overwinter in Saskatchewan - but perhaps the unexpected snow fooled them for a day or two. The snow was gone by the following afternoon. Now, almost two weeks later, the prairie is incredibly green.
I made this shot in my artist friend Laureen Marchand's backyard, near her feeders, where hundreds of birds gathered in the aftermath of the freak May snowstorm. She is @laureenartist on Instagram, and her site is well worth visiting.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
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