by John Baldwin
The extremely cold weather has lasted for too long now, and caused a few birds to rethink their feeding procedures, whilst competing for the various food supplies that are on offer by “yours truly”, and many of yourselves. We are used to seeing a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches, our “Upside-down” birds, on our peanut feeders, usually just one at a time. But we have seen two at the same time on two of our three separate hanging feeders (one Nyjer seed and two peanuts). Caught by surprise, I had to take a “double look” the other day, when a different bird was there upside down on a peanut feeder.
I grabbed the camera and zoomed in time to see that my unknown “Upside-down” bird was, in fact, a Goldfinch, who had tired of competing with her fellows on the Nyjer seed and was trying to find some luck on the peanuts. Not really having the beak to tackle a full sized peanut, I am assuming that she was finding some of the bits off the peanuts dropped down inside the feeder, by either the Nuthatches or the Woodpeckers. She spent a bit of time imitating the Nuthatch, but has since returned to joining the general melee with her peers on the Nyjer seed! Ah, such is a bird’s life!
Stay safe and well,
Cheers,
John Baldwin
