A bird in the hand is worth ...

... two in the bush. Lots of people have the thrill of a little Black-capped Chickadee in their hand, but these little Red-breasted Nuthatches are perhaps even more of a thrill. I've always found that they are so light-weight and dainty compared to many of the Chickadees. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the Ntuhatches, this is a male because it has a black cap - females have a dark blue-grey cap. Also, the males are a brighter, rich rusty-cinnamon colour than the females. Can't remember whose hand this was, but it was taken on 22 November 2012, at Votier's Flats, Fish Creek Park.

Tomorrow (oops, no, the day after tomorrow), the annual Christmas Bird Counts start, the first one being the Banff/Canmore Count. The following day, Sunday, is the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count, which covers a circle with a 7.5 mile (12km) radius, centred on the Louise (10 St SW) bridge over the Bow River. These long days start at some unearthly hour in the morning (I usually have to set my two alarm clocks and my kitchen timer for about 4:00 a.m. - I usually get to bed between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.!) Some Counts involve a lot of driving - we carpool, for which I am truly grateful every time! Others involve hours of walking. These Counts are very valuable, so I try to go on a number of them (maybe 7 or 8?), meaning that I spend the next two and a half weeks functioning rather like an experienced zombie, totally exhausted and sleep-deprived, not to mention that I get little else done till the last Count is over, lol. I might be posting a few photos at all sorts of hours on these days, but as posting images is the last remaining glimmer of self-discipline I have (lol!), I do try to keep it up. Also, any reasonable photos I take are sent to others who either went on the Counts, were unable to go, or are used as a photo record of what species were seen, so I will have to work on those. Christmas??? Did someone say that Christmas is almost here? Where does the time fly? Happy counting to all those of you who will be out from dawn to dusk in the next three weeks! Yay, I've just realized that today is only Thursday, not Friday, so I have a little more time before the madness starts!

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_Nuthatch

Explanation of what the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts are all about:

www.birdlife.org/community/2012/12/famous-christmas-bird-...