Backyard and Beyond

A good number of Red-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) have been seen in the region this migration, an irregular occurrence for this tiny species of song bird. I heard some a few weeks ago at Green-Wood, but I hadn’t seen any in the feather until Sunday at Jamaica Bay. Two of them were wheedling pine nuts from cones and taking them to nearby hardwood snags, where they wedged them into crevices in the bark to batter them open with their chisel beaks for the nutmeat within.Look in coniferous trees, and if the pines aren’t very big also, obviously, in neighboring hardwoods with bigger branches/anvils.

I must say, as reds go, this is definitely subdued, albeit quite handsome. More fiery was the juvenile Norther Harrier we also spotted that trip; when it rocked in flight towards the afternoon sun, its belly was like a flare.