I don't. usually post birds on feeders etc,as they are not nature shots. Feeding them though sees them hanging around. Today though I decided to post a shot of a feeder, one I made with suet from the butchers being enjoyed by a Bushtit and a Chickadee.
Lovely rustic feeder! We get chickadees on our suet and in the black oil sunflower platform feeder. They grab a sunflower seed, go up into the nearby tree, and bash the heck out of that seed!
Nuthatches do the same thing, that is where they get the name Nuthatch from. They open the shell and basically hatch the seed hence the word nut hatch.
Our birds are enjoying their suet too. They really needed it a week or so ago when the temperatures dropped to -6 degrees. I always squeeze little bits into grooves in my trees for the tree creepers. They don't use the feeders and it's my way of making sure they get their share.
OK !! Didn`t have my glasses on when I looked at the post title !! I thought,, Bullsh-t ! I can get that one !! Its right up my alley ! And then I put my glasses on ! Bummer !
It is Kildale! I am envious of all you with you bird feeders up and your suet out. In our town we have to wait until we are sure the bears are hibernating; they make a mess of the feeders otherwise. I really can't wait until we can put the feeders up!
We don't have bears too close but reading about them I saw this interesting fact: It is estimated that there are more than 120,000 Black Bears in British Columbia and over 7000 Black Bears on Vancouver Island making it one of the more dense places in the world for this bear population.
After finding out how the Nuthatch got its name I thought I'd add a couple of facts on the subject of birds names too. The Bewick swan was named after the 18th-century engraver Thomas Bewick. He published the first popular book on Britain's birds in 1797. The Montagu's harrier was named after ornithologist George Montagu and White's thrush after Gilbert White - the founding father of natural history. I didn't realise just how interesting birds names could be!! Thanks Kildale for giving me even more excuses to stay playing on my computer.
We basically have two types of nuthatches here--one is called the boomkruiper and the other one is called the boomklever. I say basically because there are numerous sub-types. Boomklever: Sitta europaea Boomkruiper: Certhia brachydactyla The bird above primarily moves about facing downwards, hence the suffix, klever which means "hanging on". The second (brown) bird's suffix means "creeping" because they primarily creep upwards. I really liker these little fellows. I have seen a number of docu's on these birds and it is just fascinating. They are also regularly featured on the "-watch" programmes on the BBC. Great to see you back, Kildale.
Talking of bird names, many are named after the person who saw it first. Although the Stellers jay had been seen before. A explorer Steller was going to the Lake Louise area and asked a guy what to look for to know he was in the area. He was told to look for a large dark blue bird with black head feathers, so it was named Steller's jay.