Walk This Way

This is a white-breasted male Nuthatch. Sometimes I like to sit out in my backyard on days when it's not too cold. I'll sit there with my zoom lens and a book and the birds will eventually get used to my being there and I can get a couple of good shots. My husband is the 'birder' in our family. I remember an incident that happened when I first started dating him, back when we were 19 years old and I wasn't quite sure of this guy yet. I was letting him drive my new (used) Fiat 124 Sport Coupe and he had it in 5th gear on a country road when he yells out "oh my God, it's a rare speckled tufted tweeter!" Actually, these weren't the words he used, but I didn't know much about the birds back then. Then he pulled over. I mean, he dropped from 5th gear to a full stop in seconds flat and had the car pulled over and was getting out! I sat inside wondering what kind of nut would stop like that because of a bird, and what had I gotten into here. When he climbed back in the car, he told me the bird had flown away and he wished he had a good pair of binoculars because it wasn't very often that you got to see a (tufted tweeter) like that. I ended up falling in love with this nut and I think you can guess what I got him for his 20th birthday. Those binoculars lasted for years! And I did end up learning a lot about birds after that.