Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: not my hand

Not my hand, by the way! Took this photo on 7 July 2014, whilst on one of Don Stiles' annual Bluebird outings to see the Mountain Bluebird nesting boxes along his route, SW of the city. Some of these wooden boxes have been taken over by Tree Swallows, which are also banded and counted. Unfortunately, this year, all the Bluebirds had already fledged, but we saw a few boxes that contained Tree Swallow eggs and some that contained several (around 6) Tree Swallow babies. Actually, one box had 12 baby Tree Swallows (12 days old?), all tightly snuggled together, so obviously two adult females were using the same box. I've never seen that before. Can't imagine how cramped it will be as the babies grow bigger and four adults need to get through the small hole of the box to feed them! Most of the birds we saw had already been banded, but we did see Don band a few others that were now old enough to be banded. He places some dried grasses at the bottom of a bucket and places each baby in there after he has fitted a teeny band around one of its legs (actually, it's foot, as that first big bend is the heel.) Then they are all carefully placed back into the nesting box, ready for Mom and Dad to return to them, which they do immediately. For anyone who might wonder if a baby bird is handled, will its parents pick up my scent and abandon it? The answer below is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: A. It's a myth that parent birds will abandon young that have been touched by humans—most birds have a poor sense of smell, and birds in general identify their young using the same cues we humans do—appearance and sound. It's perfectly safe to pick up a fallen nestling and put it back in the nest, or to carry a fledgling out of danger and place it in a tree or shrub." Same would apply to bird banding. NO BIRD OR WILD ANIMAL SHOULD EVER BE KEPT AS A PET!

So often, when I take photos deep within a forest or wooded area, my photos don't come out. On this particular day, 30 April 2014, the sun was actually shining right down on this little male Red-breasted Nuthatch who flew down to someone's hand (not MY hand). It's always such a thrill to have any wild bird on ones hand, whether it is a friendly little Black-capped Chickadee, a Boreal Chickadee, a Red- or a White-breasted Nuthatch, or even a little Downy Woodpecker - which feels amazing! Taken when I was on a morning walk with friends at South Glenmore Park. We walk down along the edge of the Glenmore Reservoir towards Weaselhead, then up through the forest and back along the top, paved pathway to the parking lot. Usually, pretty well all the birds we see are very, very distant, so I come home with very few photos. This time, I did manage to get this Nuthatch, a distant Loon, and a teeny Boreal Chorus Frog in full croak : ) "The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small passerine, measuring 4.5 in (11 cm) in length, with a wingspan of 8.5 in (22 cm) and a weight of 9.9 g (0.35 oz). Its back and uppertail are bluish, and its underparts rust-colored. It has a black cap and eye line and a white supercilium (eyebrow). Sexes are similarly plumaged, though females and youngsters have duller heads and paler underparts. The Red-breasted Nuthatch's call is high-pitched, nasal and weak. Transcribed as yenk or ink, they have been likened to a toy tin horn or a child's noisemaker. Its song is a slowly repeated series of clear, nasal, rising notes, transcribed as eeen eeen eeen." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_Nuthatch www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-breasted_nuthatch/id Yesterday, we had around 10" of snow and it's still snowing this morning. The sky is white, so we know there is more to come.