From my yard, I am enjoying the opportunity to watch the nuthatch pair at their nest cavity, "Up Close and Personal". They have been exhibiting the "bill sweeping" described in _Birds' Nests_ in the Peterson Field Guide series, but with a little twist. Hal H. Harrison writes, "Both birds engage in prolonged (several minutes) sweeping of bill in wide arc in or outside cavity, generally with insect held in bill. Unproven theory is that crushed insect may repel squirrels searching for available cavity. It is considered unlikely that this is courtship behavior." "Prolonged" is an apt description; it hinges on Obsessive-Compulsive. The twist this evening was that, instead of an insect, the male was using a piece of pliable plastic! It was of the type that could have started out as part of an opaque wrapper, maybe a little stiffer than wax paper. The nest cavity is in a Black Cherry tree, and periodically he would stuff the plastic under a piece of bark as if he were done and tucking it away, then he'd pull it right back out, sweep some more, and continue the cycle. At one point he ended up about 2' below the entrance, then he looked around & realized how far he'd gotten away from it and worked his way back. Meanwhile, the female was also bill sweeping in different areas, once on the opposite side of the tree from him and the opening. The difference was that while she started with a real insect, there couldn't have been any part of it remaining at all by the time she was done, not even bug juice! One or two Ruby-crowned Kinglets and several Yellow-rumped Warblers have been feeding in trees in and around my yard since they arrived last Monday. This evening there were 8 White-throated Sparrows (2 white- and 6 tan-striped morphs) foraging under the feeders. Kathy Mock Barberton, OH "When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all." -- Edward O. Wilson ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]