Educating Risa

 

Over the Easter weekend, we ventured out for a short nature walk to feed the chickadees. Black-capped chickadees are Gareth’s favourite bird, and they LOVE black oil sunflower seeds:

Jim and I got in on the action too:

But it was Daegan, our “nature whisperer”, who got the best results. Despite being nervous at first:

He quickly got the hang of it, and the birds preferred to go to him (perhaps due to his smaller size, yet he was able to stay still—like a tree—more easily than Gareth?):

Daegan even got a red-breasted nuthatch to land on his hand and take a seed, something none of the rest of us managed. It took us by surprise, though, as Daegan simply opened his hand and was getting ready for some chickadees a ways off to notice, when the nuthatch swooped down, grabbed the seed, and took off. I didn’t get a picture. But we did see some other nuthatches. Here’s the much larger white-breasted helping itself to seeds someone had set out in a small, homemade feeder:

By the end of our walk, Daegan had some chickadees so relaxed around him that they hung around on his hand for a bit after eating. Daegan has a gift with nature’s creatures, and has long been drawn to the natural world. He taught himself to read by perusing field guides! Here’s one tame chickadee, in consecutive shots:

If you want to try this, you’ll get best results with black oil sunflower seeds, in the morning, on a cool day. Have fun!