...........The Hummingbird Adventure........

This summer we had a wonderful set of visitors on our back porch.  A Momma Hummingbird chose to make a nest in a camel bell apparatus that son Mike gave us long ago. It had bells on it that were very small- not much bigger than your thumb.

We had pretty much forgotten about the camel bell decoration until we had a family gathering, and one of the kids noticed a mother hummingbird nesting on the tiniest of camel bells on the back porch. It was almost touching the rafters that support the roof.  From that day on, we spent a lot of time watching the comings and goings of Momma Hummingbird.  At first, she hardly left the nest, even though I kept walking directly beneath her nest to go from my washing machine to the clothes lines.  She remained as still as a statue with eyes wide and anxious. But she never moved.

Eventually, one sunny morning we peeked out on her early; and she was off her nest, feeding at one of our three backyard feeders. Just so exciting. 

From then on, every morning, when I got up, the first thing I did was to go to the back door and looked out at her nest (camera in hand).  She was mostly sitting on the nest keeping her babies warm; but day by day she ventured out more and more to bring food to her hungry brood.  We did not disturb nor climb up and look in the nest, fearing (probably falsely) that she might abandon them if we interfered. 

Presently, if you looked very carefully, you could see two tiny, needle like spikes above the nest rim.  The Babies!  As time passed, the round tops of their heads became visible; and bit by bit, they grew so big that we could see them eagerly awaiting Momma Hummingbird's  return. As she flew in, circling the nest, both beaks gaped open eagerly awaiting the next meal.

 Soon the babies became too big to sit side by side in their tiny nest, and had to rest facing in opposite directions.  Most of the time they rarely moved. Probably a point of protection for such small and vulnerable creatures.  But when Momma came zeroing in with dinner, carefully circling the nest, they  became very animated. Momma had to go first to one side of the nest, and then the other to feed them.

Just before they fledged, they got quite brave and pushy, and pretty much jostled each other from opposite edges of the nest.  I took  pictures almost every day, and recorded the drama.  Then one morning, after a very pushy day before, poof- the nest was empty!

We were pretty sure they made it to adulthood, because we noticed that there were two new hummingbirds feeding at our feeders, and neither one seemed to be the least concerned if we went near the feeders while they were there.  It was a wonderful experience, and we hope in the spring  Momma Hummingbird will return and occupy her nest once more.

Above is one of the hummingbird family portraits I took while the babies were growing up.