Sheer Orneriness!

I have a tiny backyard, in deep shade, and sandwiched between a 3-storey building and a line of evergreens hiding a public foot-path. It's not prime birding territory, and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the patronage of my small flock.

I have 2 feeders, with an additional bowl that I set out when the weather is atrocious. There's a bucket of assorted bird seed hung on a post; the juncos and a pair of squirrels mainly use this. Sometimes a fox sparrow or two joins in; mostly they just pick up the handful of seeds I throw under the shrubbery.

The other feeder is my own invention; a home-made pop-bottle feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds. I've been using one of these for about 10 years, and it has never failed to attract the chickadees.

I've posted this photo before, but it shows the feeder in operation:

A nuthatch, last fall

(I have posted instructions for making this feeder, here.)

This feeder serves the chickadees well, and the occasional nuthatch. Squirrels can't get at it. Unfortunately, neither can most of the ground birds; it swings and spins wildly at the least touch. I have never seen a sparrow at the feeder, at all. One (and I think one only) of my juncos has been making attempts at it, leaping from the nearest branch of the maple, flopping around wildly in the air, and occasionally actually grasping the perch and getting its reward. (I stand at my window rooting for it; "Go get 'em, little feller!")

The last couple of days, a pair of nuthatches have been assiduously ferrying seeds to the cedars. I thought I'd try for another photograph.

The feeder hangs about a foot outside my bedroom window; very handy for photography. But when I stand at the window with a camera, only the chickadees will stay on the perch for any length of time. Since September, when I got in the shot above, the nuthatches recognize me and drop off the perch, seedless, the instant they realize I am there. And the poor junco sees me, hesitates in the air, flaps all over the place, then misses the perch and drops.

So I set up the tripod at the open window, attached the camera, and hid myself from view behind the curtain, with only my shutter finger visible. I sat down to wait.

And even the chickadees took exception to that arrangement. Often, they stay on the perch, spinning around and around for a while before they take their seed and go off to crack it open; I think they get a kick out of the merry-go-round effect. But not today. Fly in, grab a perch for a split second, snatch a seed and escape before that nasty flash gets in their eyes; that was their technique. I took umpteen shots, and ended up with only two, both of a slightly smaller chickadee that I had seen for the first time a couple of days ago. Most of the rest of the photos were of an empty feeder, maybe with a blurry wing in the background.

The newcomer.

Just plain uncooperative, that's what they are, the lot of them.

However, there's a good side to it. Looking over the failed photos, I noticed that at least one of those escaping chickadees is a different colour: on the side, the flash catches a rich chestnut brown instead of the cream - buff - grey tones I'm used to.

It's a chestnut-backed chickadee, new to my backyard. Very nice. Now, to see if I can get a decent photo.

I'm leaving the tripod at the window. Maybe they'll get used to it. (Fingers crossed.)