Brown Creeper

Beacon Hill Park continues to provide some interesting birdwatching opportunities. It gave me my first view of a perched owl (see Fern's photo of the Barred Owl on Sunday) and on the trail out to the road I spied this modest little Brown Creeper (Certhia americana), searching for his buggy lunch in crevices in the bark.

Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)

This tiny little bird is a Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) and here he is pictured hunting for insects in the bark of a Garry Oak overlooking the West Bay Walkway. I was thinking this was a fairly insignificant bird and then I realized what he was doing. Remember, in the above photo he is hanging upside down. As he poked here and there in bark crevices, he hopped upwards. The more I think about it, it seems, like the flight of the bumblebee, to be impossible. Why, as soon as he lets go with his feet, doesn't he plummet towards the earth? Well, all I can say is that he doesn't, and he makes this defiance of gravity look easy. Wonderful!