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A warm sunny evening, so the kitchen window was wide open... I came into the kitchen and detected movement and immediately went on full alert! Turned out to be a young bird of the feathered variety, and a very pretty one. Fortunately I'm used to handling birds of all sizes and used to keep free-flight Macaws, so I knew to keep calm and all my movements slow.
^ The water in the pan was still hot and so I was worried a terrible drowning might occur.
^ Easily identifiable as a juvenile Goldfinch.
She/He was very calm and without a racing heartbeat and so easily allowed me to gently spread a wing and check the bird over for possible injury. No damage whatsoever so it was time to release back in the wild.
Once in the garden I took her/him to a bush and after hopping onto a branch I was then delighted to see proper flight upwards into the biggest tree.
I see a great variety of birds in my wildlife garden but the limitations of my Fuji 200EXR camera rarely allow a good enough photo. It's good to know that the Goldfinches are about again as they seriously declined in the 1970's and 80's.
