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Here are some early blog entries about my experiences with a very special little hummingbird. The photo is not her, but a very close likeness--a fellow Anna's Hummingbird, which is a common species in these parts and, unlike other hummers, stays around all year round.  She has become a close friend who shows no fear at all when I'm watching her from the other side of the window, unlike her little cousins and fellow hummers.  She sits and watches me, all fluffed up and happy.  I think she feels safe with me.  One day this past fall I was watering my flower boxes in the front of the yard and I heard a loud buzzing behind me.  I turned quickly to see my little hummingbird friend hovering behind me.  I definitely felt it was an overture, a way of saying hello.  She buzzed over to a nearby telephone wire and watched me as I continued to water my flowers.  So here's the story of how we met and the basis of our friendship:


July 07, 2006


Hummingbird medicine


Yesterday, July 6, 2006, I saved a hummingbird. I don’t know if it lived after I helped it, but I do know it flew away afterward. I was in the backyard to put out some peanuts for the squirrels and scrub jays, and I saw our friend “The Cat” playing with something. She put it down and then played with it again. I looked more closely and just saw a small clump of feathers, thinking that’s all it was. That was until it squeaked! I went over and pushed the cat away and there was a very tiny bird, a hummingbird, still breathing very rapidly but stunned. I gently picked it up and it squeaked again and I put it into a small terra cotta colored plastic flower pot. The little bird clung to my finger and I had to gently push it off to get it into the pot. I set the pot down inside the garage and I finished feeding the birds and walked back, watching The Cat, who had turned back to find its prey gone. She looked very puzzled and kept picking up clumps of grass and dropping them, as if to say, that’s not it! Where did I put that thing?


I took the bird back into the house and found a small box that had holes in it. I lined it with paper towels and gently put the tiny bird inside. It was breathing very rapidly—normal for a hummingbird—and was pretty limp. I closed the box and put it in my room, thinking that I was probably giving the bird a quiet place to die. About a half hour or so later I suddenly heard fluttering coming from the box! I yelled to John that the bird was very much alive and recovered from its trauma. After checking carefully for The Cat, I took the box outside and opened it. The hummingbird was in the corner, its wings splayed, very alert but also quite frightened. I told the bird it was okay and it could fly away now. I tilted the box a bit, and it moved and then took off, shooting through the leaves of a tree and then kind of dropping a bit before grabbing onto some branches. That was the last I saw of it. I went back there later and no bird. When I looked back into the box, there was a single, very small feather inside, tinged with a hint of green. I didn’t think much about it at first, but a few minutes later it occurred to me that it was an offering. It had left that single feather for me. I went back and got the tiny feather and put it in a very special place. My memory of that shimmering, vulnerable little life in my hand.


I hope it is thriving and healthy and enjoying lots of sweet nectar. I believe it is.



July 22, 2006


My hummingbird


I’m watching ‘my’ hummingbird right now (see earlier post for more on the hummingbird). She comes often to my feeder, which is about two and a half feet from where I sit all day. She feeds deeply, not like most hummingbirds, who feed, look around, feed a bit more, look around again. This little one just sticks in her beak through the feeder’s opening and drinks and drinks. Yum! Now she is sitting, as she has for about the past seven minutes, relaxing and resting a bit in a place she feels safe. And that has an endless food supply! She is the smallest, most delicate looking thing, with dark brown little eyes and markings that make it look like she has eye makeup on. Very lovely little eyes. I think she may be the sweetest thing on the planet. Now she drinks more nectar. And rests, looking around in her alert little manner. I’m gifted with a hummingbird friend who likes to sit for a nice long while.


I think we definitely have a connection going here. Whatever it is, I hope she never leaves for good! Hummingbirds around here tend to stick around all year. I’ve had these two little girls, this one and another more slender and tall female hummingbird (who also seems quite un-shy during her stays) visiting since last spring. I haven’t seen the male for quite a while, but occasionally he comes around. He’s more cautious and shy.


Off she goes, onto whatever it is she does the rest of the day when she isn’t keeping me company as I pound away on this keyboard! I’ll miss her, until the next time...