Close Encounter With a Shropshire Nuthatch

 This week I set myself a task of obtaining what I would class as a decent picture of a Nuthatch, the reason for this is that for the past few months the two Nuthatches that frequented our bird table are missing in action. Nuthatches are such  beautiful birds and their daily appearances made a huge contribution to my own mental health. This overriding factor was the catalyst for my sudden desire to capture an image of  a Nuthatch. I find that at this time of the year it is a lot easier to attempt to photograph the Nuthatch, this is because of the lack of foliage on  trees and the scarcity of their natural diet, in short insects. This does mean that some birds will be visiting local feeders at a higher frequency than they will in less leaner times.

I've found that when the Nuthatch feeds it does not hang around for very long, in fact you will have about 5 seconds with the bird. This gives the Nuthatch enough time to scrape food into its beak and then fly off to what it considers a safe place to eat the food that it has just collected. Once it has  fed it  will return on a frequent basis until the supply of food has run out. I've included a short video in which to support my theory.

Before I continue may I add that  the Nuthatch is often described as a diminutive woodpecker like bird that inhabits a woodland habitat. It is the only bird which regularly walks head-first down tree trunks , the distinctive marks are a blue-grey above the wings, dark grey wings and a black stripe along the eyes. The underbelly is a pale buff with a shading into cinnamon. The Nuthatch is widespread in deciduous woodland and does frequent parklands and gardens.

I had spent quite a lot of time walking around a woodland habitat in search of  Nuthatch to photograph without much success, the birds were about, quite flighty, not really settling and very aware of the public.  It wasn't until the end of our walk whilst queuing for a coffee that I encountered a couple of hungry Nuthatches feeding from a stone. There were a lot of people around so I was extremely surprised to be able to photograph the birds whilst they fed.  I've included a couple of  images that were taken during my brief  5 second  encounter  with the Nuthatch