A highlight of my summer, and my life, has been the hummingbird nest outside my kitchen window. Earlier this summer, we noticed this little nest and then started seeing more and more of the hummingbird mama who built it. Although it seemed too good to be true, especially since we didn't even have a hummingbird feeder in our yard, I began to wonder if there might be egg(s) in the nest.
It got to the point where the mama bird was there around the clock, so I started seriously researching the nesting cycle of hummingbirds on random websites. Eggs are incubated 1-2 at a time for a period of 21-28 days and when the eggs get close to hatching, the mama bird stays with them up to 55 minutes of every hour.
On Saturday, August 4th, we went to a movie (Christopher Robbin - which I really liked!) and came home to the yuckiest, poopiest window I've ever seen. Jason got out the ladder and captured this incredible picture of our newborn hummingbird! Baby birds can't regulate their own body temperature, so the mama bird stays very close by the first few days.
The next day, Sunday, baby birdie started popping his little head out of the nest for feedings from the mama - and we seriously contemplated staying home from church so that we could watch our little miracle. Ultimately, we went to church, but only because we were already in our church clothes by the time baby birdie was making appearances. And once you're dressed and in your church clothes, you're practically there already.
It wasn't very long before baby birdie was flapping it's tiny wings. Which was so incredible to watch. We spent a lot of time that whole week sitting at the kitchen table waiting for baby birdie to appear. Ask to see my videos of the mama feeding her little one and the superfast wings in action! The little chirp chirps and his tiny beak are so cute.
Again relying on a random website, I learned that hummingbirds take care of their babies in the nest for 8-12 days, and then the babies go off on their own. We started noticing the baby spending a lot of time just sitting on the top of the nest, and we figured it was getting close. (Although I hoped we were wrong.) Sure enough, on Tuesday, August 14th, our little baby birdie left the nest. It was interesting to me that once he left (we started calling him "him" at some point and I'm pretty sure he was a boy), he left for good and we didn't see him in the nest again. The mama bird flew by several times that evening. I think she was checking on him. It was very sweet. But he was gone.
Empty nesters. I was kind of sad. But we sent him off into the world with happy hummingbird thoughts. I wish he had a little bitty cell phone and he could text us and let us know what he's up to. I'd love to follow him on Facebook. In any case, we have a very popular hummingbird feeder now (we wanted to keep both mom and baby bird around as long as we could; plus - I wanted to do something for the mama bird and getting a hummingbird feeder was the closest thing I could do to taking her meals) and I like to think he comes by sometimes to visit and see where he was born and spent his early days. Maybe he'll bring his kids here one day and show them the kitchen window he liked to poop on so much growing up. I'd like to think so.
No comments:
Post a Comment