White-breasted Nuthatch and a “V” stories voting reminder

The “V” stories voting round is really struggling to keep up with previous rounds. However, this is understandable given the time of year and all the stuff going on.    

For them who still take the time to read our stories and vote for their favorite, thank you in advance. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge V-Stories” are HERE(link) Votes will be accepted until  Noon (Central Time) on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.

So, on Christmas day I had the opportunity to get a few close-ups of birds I don’t see at my house.

That is a White-breasted Nuthatch (LINK). It may not be recognizable at first glance because people are probably used to seeing it hanging head-first on the side of trees and feeders. Occasionally, even hanging upsidedown under branches.

These birds are usually difficult to photograph because they don’t perch in one place for very long, and even when they perch somewhere for more than a few seconds, they don’t stand still.

This one was trying to figure out what the old man in a heavy coat, gloves, hat, and still shivering was doing out by the feeders.

In that location, a stiff breeze grabbed the 14° temperature and added a generous windchill for good measure.

I did my shooting in shifts, standing out there for ten minutes and then running in to thaw various extremities.

This wasn’t the only bird I photographed, but I figure I would start with this one for no other reason than it was the first one that posed for me.

For their size, they have an impressive wingspan. Now, I had the shutter too slow to freeze the action, but I don’t mind the above photo. However, I did try to process it using Topaz Sharpen AI, and while it didn’t work miracles, I like how it turned out . . .

For all these photos, clicking on the photo will open a larger version on a new tab or window. You can also go to the SmugMug Gallery (LINK) which also has photos used in previous voting reminders.

Anyway, after taking off from its perch, it offered up more typical poses . . .

They are neat birds, and always seem to work really hard at getting food for themselves and — based on the number of seeds they fly off with — what must be a sizable family.

Here’s a gallery of the above . . .

. . . eyes front . . .

. . . look to the right . . .

Give him the right eye . . .

. . . give him the left eye . . .

. . . give him both eyes.

Moon the bastard . . .

. . . and take off too fast for the camera to get a decent photo.

Sharpened using Topaz Sharpen AI

And, here are a couple of links to older posts . . . LINK1 (in honor of people considering resolutions) and LINK2 (another long, long, long post … I might have shared it before, but I came across it and I figured, “why not share it again?”). 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Note 2: it’s perfectly OK to share a link that points back here.

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