THE LITTLE PATIENT


White-breasted Nuthatch

A few days ago a hard bump against one of our big windows made me jump out of my office chair and run outside. I knew immediately what happened and found this little female White-breasted Nuthatch unconscious down in the snow. Even though most of our windows are protected with bug screens or have bird protection decals on the glass, it happens from time to time that a bird hits the glass of one of the two big windows that can’t be reached easily and lack protection.

I kept the little guy in my hand and warmed it up for several minutes until she regained consciousness. For a few minutes the bird rested on the front porch where I took the first picture. I was happy to see her flying to my “woodpecker tree”, a dead cedar that holds a bird feeder and is used for yard photography. There she spent another ten minutes before the nuthatch finally returned into the woods.

The size of this White-breasted Nuthatch tells me it is probably one of the juveniles from this year. The older birds are slightly bigger. They don’t migrate and are here all year long. I’m glad it turned out well for the little patient… 😊

GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA


Ortenburg castle, Bautzen / Germany

There are different ways to fill a window and as you can see I found a few over the years. It seems to become popular to replace the sky or other elements of a picture in Photoshop. There might be sometimes a reason to that, but I still prefer what I learned during the ages of film, “get it right in camera”…

Window in Aminas Fork, an old mining ghost town in Colorado.

Prague, Czech Republic

Chicago, Illinois