Flown Away: Well I have this opportunity to post AGAIN this week due to the fact that my wife has taken our boy abandoning me in the city to go and sit beside (and dive into) a lake! THE NERVE. (read - so jealous)
This shot is of a baby bird that took it's first flight out of the nest and landed here. That's right. While Claire was assisting my parents in painting the barn a baby bird jumped out of the nest and a combination of strong gravity and weak wing power brought it to rest on Claire's shoulder. I was very impressed with Claire's presence of mind in this situation as I would definitely have reacted much more strongly than she did. When in the country and something heavy bumps into your shoulder and stays there I know I would have quickly brushed it off. Claire did not and it stayed on her shoulder long enough for me to get this shot before attempting flight number two and try to land on the roof of our car. It was not a pretty landing and instead over shot and I am sure tumbled painfully on to the gravel driveway.
In the end I managed to get him on a stick and back into his original tree and, while he cowered behind a leaf, his mother was flitting around chirping. I am sure she was saying encouraging words like "Hurry up. If you learn to fly then we can take off, leave your Dad and go to the lake when it gets hot next week!"