Sitting on a bench surrounded by 70-foot-tall Norway spruces, I watch a red-breasted nuthatch take a peanut from a feeder in my front yard. There’s a cool breeze on this sunny autumn day, and I know ...

Hidden behind the needled boughs of a spruce tree that rises from my yard, a group of nuthatches was having an animated conversation. It seemed early in the day to engage in such lively chatter, but ...