A Bird In The Hand

[poliphilo]

A nuthatch let itself into the house yesterday. I plucked it off the curtain rail, took it outside, opened my hand and instead of flying away it clung to my thumb with one of its claws and sat there on my palm gawping. I don't think it was physically damaged. Eventually I persuaded it to climb into a tree- and left it there, perched on the stump of a branch, in the hope that it would come to its senses.