A tiny egg
sits in small 2-inch wide hummingbird nest, resting on a swaying palm
frond in a backyard in Mar Vista, California. (Los Angeles Times photo
by Hartmut Walter.)
This wonderful story captured my heart — enjoy!
Hummingbird nest carries a reminder of small pleasures — as a chick is hatched and matures, one yard becomes a lesson in enjoying the little things
I've
been obsessed with the hummingbirds in our yard. Mornings and evenings
since late February, I've tiptoed to the palm hanging over the barbecue
to see if the mother was still sitting on the 2-inch nest she built on
a swaying frond.
In the first weeks, she sat nearly
motionless, her beak tilted upward, stoic even through the rainstorms
and the windy nights that followed. When she was not in there, I
worried that she'd given up on the whole family thing. Or maybe she'd
met an untimely end.
Then we glimpsed her chick, its tiny beak
poking out from the nest, wide open and waiting, as my children once
waited for dinner to be put before them in bite-sized pieces.
Mom would invariably be nearby, flitting between the orange blossoms and the neon-yellow plastic flowers on a feeder I bought.
In recent weeks I've shooed away errant cats and swooping crows. The
hordes of squirrels seemed too busy gorging on oranges to find the
little family.
Through it all I've wondered what my
preoccupation with this bird and her gray chick really means. Am I
still mourning the death of our beloved family dog last year? Am I
missing the kids, who've mostly flown our stucco nest?
My
neighbor Hartmut Walter thinks the mother is an Allen's hummingbird,
noting her green back and the flash of copper on her throat. A UCLA
geography professor who studies birds, Walter says the species migrated
to the Los Angeles area from the Channel Islands in the 1960s, drawn by
proliferating nectar plants as bean and corn fields gave way to yards
like mine.
In my Mar Vista garden, the winter rains have
seeded a bumper crop of dandelions. Here and there are the shriveled
remains of plants that didn't take; my sweet pea vines molded before
they bloomed this year. Yet my 50-by-30-foot plot has been a refuge for
this tiny family. And, really, isn't a refuge what gardeners want?
Never mind the 12-story office building towering over my backyard. Or
the droning traffic on the 405, four blocks away. Happiness, I read, is
the ability to tune out the noise and find joy in life's small
pleasures and daily miracles.
Sure, instinct, not the pursuit
of happiness, drew the hummingbird to our yard. There she found tiny
stems, wood chips and bits of fluff she fused with saliva and spider
silk. She felt safe enough to lay two little white eggs and, like the
patient elephant Horton, wait for them to hatch.
Perhaps
during her first long nights she was overcome, like me, by the perfume
of our yellow trumpet blooms. Maybe she took pleasure in the riotous
orange of the clivia plants, or the first pink rose of the season.
Simple moments of awe in the garden. And sadness. Two eggs, as I
mentioned, but only one chick.
That survivor stood high in the nest late last month, nearly as big as its mother, watchful and ready to fly.
The nest is empty now. Perhaps the fledgling is among the hummers still
darting through my garden. Maybe we'll even find another nest in our
trees this year.
The economy stumbles and fighting in Iraq
grinds on. But it's easy to escape to our gardens, spring pulling us
out the back door each morning.
10 comments on Small Pleasures
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I enjoyed your post. It is rare for people to view a hummingbird nest even in your own backard, because the nest are often so well hidden and therefore out of site. You should count yourself among the privilaged to have actually seen a hummingbird nest. Often a hummingbird will build there nest near a source of water, so keep this in mind when trying to spot a hummingbird nest.
If you would like much more information about hummingbirds, please click the link below. The site contains many articles about hummingbirds, video clips about hummingbirds, an informative tips booklet on hummingbirds, and much more.
<a href="http://www.abouthummingbirds.com">Click Here To Visit About Hummingbirds</a>
Happy hummingbird watching everyone!
Gee, this was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed it very much. I remember the joy and fascination I experienced one year when I was housesitting for some friends while they were on vacation. There was quite an abundance of hummingbirds that visited her yard, flitting about, darting from one nectar flower to another. I would sit on the deck and just watch them with quiet interest.
Glad you enjoyed this. My stepmom has a hummingbird feeder and it's a treat to watch the tiny darting birds. Just imagine — that egg is smaller than a dime!
Amazing story. I enjoyed reading this. It was beautifully written.
I liked it, too. The writer did a great job sharing her experience. I'm so glad she did!
Thanks for your kind congratulations and so liking this post! Love it when you stop by. Enjoy the magical hummers who visit you! Say hello for me!
Thanks for sharing this story. It was a very good read.
Glad you enjoyed it!
from my long experience in animal s psychology, i think the don t suffer even in the agony s state, so don t care for them,they are different from us biologicaly, above all, in cerebral s field for enstence they differenciated us by a different frontal cortex that regarding thought, like we touch at human , so don t ever wory about them tragical destiny, they are all happy with tatal absence of conscieous like we find at human and that makes them suffer more and more
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