and for the photographer.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
I took this photo three weeks ago today in the west desert mountains. Last year there were often several nuthatches and chickadees feeding on seeds at the same time on this Douglas Fir tree but if I remember correctly on this particular morning this nuthatch was the only bird in the chow line. ‘He’ repeatedly came back to the tree for more seeds, some of which he cached nearby.
The photo isn’t perfect but I like it in part because I succeeded in accomplishing a difficult goal. Most of my shots of feeding nuthatches have other cones and/or needles behind the head of the bird which often make it difficult to clearly see the seed in the bird’s bill. And usually the seed still has the ‘wing’ attached to it when the nuthatch pulls it out of the cone so it can look more like some kind of debris than an actual seed. So it’s difficult to get a clean background and a ‘clean’ seed in the same shot.
But this time I had not only a clean background but most of the seed’s wing is hidden in the bird’s bill so we have a good clean look at the actual seed at the tip of the bill.
In this highly cropped photo taken three frames before the previous one we see the nuthatch tugging at the seed’s wing which is attached to the actual seed still hidden in the cone.
I’ve always enjoyed Douglas Fir cones in the setting of my photos because they’re natural and attractive and I like their contrasting colors against the green of the needles. In the previous photo two of the three cones in the foreground are razor sharp and the third is sharp enough. I’m less fond of the out of focus cone in the background but for me it’s no big deal.
I’ve been known to overanalyze my photos and perhaps that’s what I’m doing here but it’s always fun to set a goal and eventually achieve it. For me that’s one of the many joys of bird photography.
Ron
Notes:
- I’m no botanist so I struggled with what to call the appendage attached to the actual seed. It apparently isn’t the seed scale and it looks like one of the two wings on a maple seed so I just went with ‘wing’. If anyone out there knows for sure I’d be happy to be enlightened.
- Baby it’s cold outside! Right now my thermometer reads 21° and it’s supposed to get colder by dawn. That’s pretty damn cold for Salt Lake City in October. Good thing I got my camping trailer winterized and my spaghetti squash brought in from the garden yesterday. Tomatoes are toast…
Two beautiful photographs, Ron. You have really captured the agility and personality of this one. Nuthatches are such wonderful acrobats and a favorite bird of mine. I have white-breasted and brown-capped nuthatches frequenting my sunflower seed feeder and a Blue Jay that imitates the white-breasted nuthatch chirp!
I think it’s a perfect shot! and the soft cone added depth.
It’s 55F here in Nova Scotia this morning, feeling kinda lucky 🙂
It’s 22° here right now. Furnace working pretty hard.
Such pretty, busy little birds, they really have to work hard to sustain themselves what with their apparent pickiness. I have Doug-fir floors in my 70-yr-old house, I’ll just have to get used to that hyphen! 😬
It’ll take some getting used to for me also, Chris. Knowing me I’ll forget…
This looks like a wing-wing situation.🥴 Perhaps a slightly bigger win for the Nuthatch.
Glad you got the squash in. There’s always a few tomatoes that don’t make it, aren’t there? At the suggestion of a friend I made fried green tomatoes for the first time this year. Amazingly delicious.
Lyle, I have a friend who loves fried green tomatoes and threatened to use some of mine for that purpose. I’ve never tasted them but to me they sound about as appetizing as canned asparagus…
As an English major and a professional writer/editor, I’m going to struggle with hyphenating Douglas-fir. Why? The “rule” (in parenthesis because we all know about this language’s eccentricities) is that you only hyphenate words that cannot stand alone as a descriptor of the noun as in a 12-year-old child. Otherwise, they’re not hyphenated. So, I would only hyphenate if we were saying a Douglas-fir tree 😉 Ah, the rules of English.
I LOVE these photos! They’re outstanding, as usual! And no, I did not miss the Golden eagle and harrier photos. I just have good, long-time, like-minded friends visiting. Your blog is always the FIRST thing I look at in the morning to begin my day with beauty!
It’s cold here, too. Well, Arizona cold with a high temp of only 55 degrees. Time to pull out the sweats–the only thing I’ll be able to fit over the brace on my leg!
Laura, I’m glad you have some friends there, presumably in part to help with your recovery. Just remember, the row you’re hoeing is getting shorter.
Thanks for the explanation of the “rule.” Of course, this being English, we all know the rules are frequently and inconsistently not followed. It’s hard knowing when when it’s ok to not follow the rule and this obviously trips up some non-native English speakers (and many who only speak English).
Beautiful photos, the light is perfect. I collect pine cones and put them on top of my garden beds. This year many of the cones I collected were from pines blown over in the big east wind in September. The cones had not opened to release seed. The birds and squirrels have been digging in my garden beds after the seed still in the cones.
April, sounds like you’ll have a lot of raking to do in your garden next spring!
Great shots! Red-breasted Nuthatches are a favorite of mine. I agree that wing is the only term I have heard used. Those bracts on the cones make it easy to distinguish a Douglas-fir. They are free, not fused with the cone scale, and the 3-pronged end is unique. That feature gives rise to the kids tale: A hawk swooped through the woods and the mice, in their terror, ran and hid in the cones. You can still see their hind-legs and tails sticking out (the 3 prongs).
My students sometimes accused me of being too nit-picky when correcting what they wrote, and I find myself doing it again. (Old teaccher habits never die.)This is a very unimportant point, but… A Douglas-fir is not a true fir. Therefore, the name is hyphenated, not two words. Similar to starfish being one word because it is not a fish. I know it seems picky, but I used to insist on these things in my students (biology major seniors and grad students) because if they were to ever submit a paper with lots of such errors it could get rejected. I actually had one student complain to the English Department because I was doing “their” job. Whoever got the complaint sent me a thank you note. Not what the student hoped for.
Never hesitate to correct me, Dan. That’s how we learn and when it comes to botany I have a lot to learn.
And one thing I used to tell my zoology students was to avoid calling them starfish. They’re more accurately called sea stars. 🙂
Good point. I agree. Now if I could find another name for seahorse.
And ringworm…
Thank you for the stunning photograph, and thank you (as always) to your knowledgeable commentators.
Hanging upside down, having to tug on those seeds AND being choosy about which ones to eat blows me away.
EC, sometimes I think they discard as many seeds as they keep.
Oh no! Even if you cooked the tomatoes down for sauce?😱 (You see where my mind is — total food-on-the-brain.)
Beautiful shot of the nuthatch! I especially like the close crop in #2. I’m a big fan of Douglas Firs as well. 🙂
It’s finally cooled down a bit here. We were in the mid-50s overnight, but back up to mid/high 70s during the day. Hope you’re getting some good shooting weather this week!
The tomatoes are history, Marty. I picked a few two days ago to keep in my kitchen but they’d already been nipped by frost so they won’t last long. We had our last BLT’s of the season two nights ago.
It’s gonna be a long winter without BLT’s using garden tomatoes and I won’t let those poor excuses for tomatoes they sell in the grocery stores anywhere near my mouth.
I’ll occasionally find a few hydroponic heirloom tomatoes at the store and they aren’t as good as summer ones, but will fit the bill if I’m in a huge craving.
Just had two more fires break out down here today and they’re both moving quickly with the dry winds today. No air support because fo the winds, so lots of evacuations. Under a red flag warning for most of the state. Crap.
Oh Marty. I am so sorry to read this. Crap is a very mild description.
What an interesting and clean shot in every way. Really like the closeup too. Neat being able to see one of these acrobatic birds feeding itself close up. Also another good lesson from the biology teacher.
Thanks, Everett. I had some help on the biology lesson from Ed and Kathy in the comments.
Your Douglas Fir made me go check to see what we have in our Prescott National Forest and Douglas Fir only accounts for about 1% of our trees. Pinyon Juniper runs about 49%, Juniper 34%, Ponderosa Pine 7%, Evergreen Woodland Oak 6%, Mesquite 2%, and then Douglas Fir and Deciduous Oak both roughly 1%.
So there – as a good teacher you prompted me to learn something more about my environment. 🙂
Love it, Everett!
Not certain where you live, Everett, but in Arizona the kind of conifer depended on the elevation. If I remember correctly from the early 70’s, Douglas-fir were at high elevations with Pinyon and Juniper at mid-range elevations. Mesquite grew at low elevations. Does this sound like elevations in Prescott NF?
COOL! REALLY captured the moment with a clear shot of the nuthatch with the seed in it’s mouth..😀 I’ve always known them as “wings” at least on the Blue Spruce trees here. Interesting biology lesson from Ed King….😀 As usual, “continuing education” as well as photo’s.
Chinook trying to get going……
Thanks, Judy. Yes, Ed’s contribution was an interesting one. As I often say I learn at least as much from my readers as they do from me.
Ron,
“Seed wing” is a perfectly acceptable term for the ‘wing’ you see on Douglas-fir seeds.
There are a couple of ways that seed wings can form in conifers. In the case of Douglas-fir, the seed wing forms from the ovuliferous scale on which the seed develops. And so a Douglas-fir seed wing is not strongly attached to its seed. You will often see a nuthatch pull the seed wing off a Douglas-fir seed as it attempts to harvest the seed, quickly discard the wing, and then go back for the seed itself.
Thanks for the ‘wing’ confirmation, Ed.
What you describe is what I actually see in many of my photos. Sometimes the nuthatches discard the wing but sometimes they also discard the seed, apparently on purpose. I think they’re pretty picky about their seeds.
A neat bird and a neat cone. My white breasted nuthatches have increased in number over the past years and they provide visual amusment if one takes the time. Love to watch them seeking out a seed that a woodpecker just buried in the bark and them fly off with it. Many times both the woodpecker returns to bury another only to be followed again by the marauding nuthatch! The cones of the douglas fir are my favorite…that bracts just adds such a different look. I think you are correct in calling that attachment a ‘wing’. That was the term I had learned in a class years ago. Cones in themselves are so interesting…different for each species and a first line in tree ID.
Kathy, I love those doug fir cones when they’re from the current year. The ones from the previous year don’t look so good.