My Friends, The Nuthatches...

Waking early always has its rewards.  This morning, I stood and had a nice chat with my new friends and neighbors, Mr & Mrs. Red-Breasted Nuthatch sitta canadensis.  I know their nest to be close by in one of the many cedar trees in the back yard.., though I'm not sure which,,, they are such busy little creatures, darting from the feeder with sunflower seed in the beak to one tree, then another, then back to the feeder..

They're the messiest eaters hands down..., well, maybe with the exception of the Stellar Jay's..., both birds toss huge amounts of seed onto the ground to get to the seeds that they prefer - which is nice for the ground dwellers, Junco's, Towhee's and the little family of finch that live under the bank of roses...

They're quite cocky little birds and several times they swooped down just missing me by inches.., not in an aggressive way, in fact they seemed to be inquisitive, they'd chit chat to each other (sounds like "meep-meep" to me,) then stop eating and eye me with their head cocked as if to say, who are you then?

They're comical too..., this one has his foot on the feeding hole, and looks like his head is stuck...,  My caption for this should be ... "can somebody lend me a hand?"

After standing there for a few minutes, they became very friendly with me,  I think with a little encouragement, a lot of patience and a handful of sunflower seeds, they might come and feed from my  hand..., which I would LOVE...