A bird in the hand

Remember that hummingbird I talked about in my last post? That vicious female who was guarding the bush in my back yard? That bush is about six feet away from the patio where the feeder hangs. That bush is the first stop of Leon the bulldog every morning. And that bush is now home to a couple of tiny miracles in the making.

When I was in high school, a friend of my mother's pointed out the nest of a ruby throated hummingbird to me. It was maybe 20 feet up in a pine tree, and the only way you could know there was a hummingbird nest up there was to follow the path of the mother and note where she stopped. So when I saw that this female was guarding the bush right here behind my house, I hardly dared hope she would make her nest there. I've looked in the bush two or three times over the last few days, but I didn't spot the nest until this morning. I was late to work because I had to stop and take pictures, then I had to send them to my sister, then I had to call my sister on the way to work and insist that she check her e-mail immediately.

I know the gestation period will be about two weeks, but I don't know when she laid these eggs. She was spending a lot of time on top of the bush last Sunday. Surely she hadn't laid the eggs yet. She wouldn't have left them alone that long. Oh! And do you suppose she was all fluffed up because she was so pregnant?

By the way, I haven't seen a male around here yet, but I was obviously wrong about her not having a mate. Now, where's this deadbeat dad?