_pauls
Well-known member
I went for a walk this morning alongside the river Blyth in Northumberland (at this point it is shallow fast-flowing river through mixed woodland) and saw a puzzling sight.
First up I saw a bird I couldn't quite identify hopping across the path ahead of me (fairly distant and I had no binoculars or camera) - it was sparrow sized and looked grey/brown back with a striking pale/white throat. When I approached it flew across the river into low vegetation on to the far bank.
When I got to where it had been and looked across to where it had flown I saw both the original and close by there was another similar bird - gray/brown above and a white throat but with a dark stripe on the head. At this point I figured nuthatch but it was not at the trunk of the tree as I usually see them, rather it was at the end of a branch over the river. It then did a perfect impression of a flycatcher - launching off, flying up to catch a fly and then returning to the same spot. I watched it do three similar circuits but I wasn't close enough to get a good enough view to positively ID it but visually it looked like a nuthatch in terms of size and markings.
What gets me is both the original bird on the ground, and the second bird fly catching from a branch behaved totally different to every nuthatch I had even seen (which I associate with flitting up and down tree trunks or foraging beneath bird feeders). The other factor putting doubt in my mind is that both birds seemed more grey/brown on the back and head rather than the blue/grey I expect in a nuthatch and that the white/pale throat was what first caught my eye.
I'm cursing that my eyes weren't sharp enough to give me confidence but its the behaviour that puzzled me - do nuthatch catch insects in flight?
Edit - my impression of the first bird was that it may be collecting mud for nest building like house martins do and I see that this is common behaviour for nuthatches.
First up I saw a bird I couldn't quite identify hopping across the path ahead of me (fairly distant and I had no binoculars or camera) - it was sparrow sized and looked grey/brown back with a striking pale/white throat. When I approached it flew across the river into low vegetation on to the far bank.
When I got to where it had been and looked across to where it had flown I saw both the original and close by there was another similar bird - gray/brown above and a white throat but with a dark stripe on the head. At this point I figured nuthatch but it was not at the trunk of the tree as I usually see them, rather it was at the end of a branch over the river. It then did a perfect impression of a flycatcher - launching off, flying up to catch a fly and then returning to the same spot. I watched it do three similar circuits but I wasn't close enough to get a good enough view to positively ID it but visually it looked like a nuthatch in terms of size and markings.
What gets me is both the original bird on the ground, and the second bird fly catching from a branch behaved totally different to every nuthatch I had even seen (which I associate with flitting up and down tree trunks or foraging beneath bird feeders). The other factor putting doubt in my mind is that both birds seemed more grey/brown on the back and head rather than the blue/grey I expect in a nuthatch and that the white/pale throat was what first caught my eye.
I'm cursing that my eyes weren't sharp enough to give me confidence but its the behaviour that puzzled me - do nuthatch catch insects in flight?
Edit - my impression of the first bird was that it may be collecting mud for nest building like house martins do and I see that this is common behaviour for nuthatches.
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