Juggling nuthatch

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 23, 2022

Sony a7Riii
Sigma 100-400 at 333mm
1/1260 sec. f8
ISO 1600

This quicksilver little nuthatch seems to be shaking cayenne pepper off a sunflower seed plucked from a feeder. The hot cayenne discourages rodents from raiding the feeder but does not affect birds. The image was cropped hard from a much larger photograph.

Chippie on a pole

CHIPMUNK, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 17, 2022

Sony A7Riii
Sigma 100-400 DG DN at 400mm
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Even the lowly and extremely common chipmunk can make a good backyard wildlife portrait when captured in an unusual pose, like a pole dancer in a honky-tonk. This one dashed up a bird feeder standard before stopping to make sure I wasn't a threat.

Hairy Woodpecker

HAIRY WOODPECKER, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 21, 2022

Sony A7Riii
Sigma 100-400 at 400mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Few birds greeted us on our second trip to the UP this summer, because we hadn't been feeding them. Only chickadees and white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches came to call at the feeders . . . until at last this fine specimen of a female hairy woodpecker landed on a suet cage.