And one flew away...

Morgan from the Humane Society called us this morning to say she was ready to release our bohemian waxwing, and when could we meet her? What a great soul to go out of her way for us like that. We called up our friends Jill and Addie, who joined us for the release. Morgan assured us that waxwings are very good at finding their flocks, like bats, and that they're not as rare here as our birdbook made them out to be; this is within their winter range.

Here's the patient, shortly before release (having eaten lots of frozen mixed berries)



















And here's Morgan and Harry, about to open the carrier (the box next to Morgan contains 9 of the 11 that didn't survive. We left them out in the field, near where I think a fox might den (based on how Sunny growled at the culvert one day as we hiked there), and we'll go back tomorrow with Jill, Addie and Luke to see if they were appreciated....























And here is a bird so happy to be free that all you see of it is its shadow as it flies off.... (if you click on the image a larger version is called up)
















We released it in a nearby preserve that has a couple of very old cherry trees in it, leftover from some farmer's orchard. We thought she might like a snack and she might find her flock as well...