Chickadee at Breakfast

Before we left our friends' place and headed for NYC this morning, I had a few minutes at the feeder with my long lens.

Among the several goldfinch, this Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) took a seed to the perch I'd put up, and held it between its feet to munch on it. I've often seen this behavior; this time the bird stayed for at least 30 seconds (that was the time between my first exposure and the last--this shot was five seconds after the first, which shows a first cut in the seed).

Edit: My ornithologist friend commented by email (Subject line: "Bravissimo!"): "It is easy to see in looking at that bill and that seed why handling live Black-capped Chickadees can be painful; a friend says that that they know what cuticle is and aim for it. The same friend describes chickadee legs as like toothpicks--very easily breakable (as can be seen by how slender they appear in your blip). Thus, at the same time that one is avoiding getting hammered by the bill one must be careful not to break a leg."

Once in Manhattan, my main outing was to the Neue Galerie, a relatively new small museum devoted to Austrian and German art of the early 20th century--above all Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Their exhibits rotate, and the current selection is devoted mainly to Klimt, with some wonderful works of their own and from private collections.

Year-ago: Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Mass.