Iridescent jewels

I love this time of the year when the Ruby-throated hummingbirds return to our yard. We've been feeding them since I noticed one was flying around our red thistle feeder and I realized it was a hummingbird and not a butterfly.

This past year, my interest in these beauties increased via webcams on UStream. I was priviledged to watch several hummingbird babies fledge. You cannot imagine how obsessed you become over these creatures. I first found Phoebe's nest after she had lost her first baby, Storm. Sassy was in the nest but not thriving. After 31 days, she was taken to rehab where she died the following day. Surely watching these new lives would not end in tragedy. Several other cams came online and my real first experience was with Buzzie Bea and Zipper and Velcro.

You can't convince me these babies do not have personalities. Watching them thrive and get bigger each day and turn into true individuals. We didn't know whether they were male or female but I pretended Zipper was a male and Velcro was his baby sister.

Hummingbirds are extremely tiny creatures, but these cams propel them into mighty giants. Watching the mother sit on the nest and lay her eggs, then begin to feed the baby/babies up to 40 times a day. Finally, the babies get too big for the nest, the mother can no longer sit on the nest, and the babies have to start sleeping alone, unprotected. Watching these babies go from resembling black ants with orange beaks to getting their beautiful green-colored feathers in just three weeks is such a transformation.

Zipper and Velcro fledged successfully, but not before some interesting interaction between the siblings. Zipper fledged first in the early evening. Normally, hummingbirds do not return to the nest once they fledge. Velcro was happy to have the nest to herself as they would spend hours jockeying for position on the nest as well as pestering the daylights out of each other or nuzzling together.

Next morning, two hummingbird babies were in the nest! Zippy returned! His mission for the day was to get Velcro to fledge. He would leave the nest, come back. He would fly on a lower branch and call to her. Velcro would look down at the ground as if it say, "But, Zippy, if I can't fly, it will be a long way down." Watching Zipper stand on the edge of the nest, flap his wings, fly away from the nest, fly back to the nest as if to say, "Vel, this is how it's done." Finally, Velcro took off only to return an hour later and spend the night in the nest. Mommy's mission the next day was to make sure Velcro took off and did not return, with Buzzie Bea protecting the nest if Vel tried to get back in it.

However, not all hummingbirds exhibit such personalities. Some siblings ignore each other completely. Some fledge together. Most do not. Eggs are laid 48 hours apart. They usually hatch 24 to 36 hours apart, so one baby has a lot of catching up to do. (Watching the egg hatch is nail-biting as it's quite a struggle for them to get out.) The older bird usually fledges first.

Thanks to these wonderful people with the ability to spot a nest the size of half of a walnut and secure a cam to broadcast to the world, I was able also see Pooh and Pixie, Gordon and George, Duke and Binky, Hope and Hoku, Emma, and Opal.

Sadly, there are as many tragic endings as there are successful fledges which is why hummingbirds must produce several clutches each year. Phoebe especially had a couple of rough patches when her eggs turned out to not be viable. Another clutch was destroyed after a crow ate her eggs. Hope and Hoku were frightened out of their nest by a crow. Our cam owner found Hoku on the ground and returned him to the nest to later fledge. Hope was seen later at a feeder. The last nest I was watching produced Opal, who seemed to vanish after just two weeks.

Watching nature up close like this is really amazing and it's something you and I would never get to witness on our own. These mothers and babies have no idea the eyes of the world are on them. We can watch the fierce protecting of the babies by the mother. Phoebe fighting off a lizard near her eggs, Buzzie Bea spreading her wings and protecting her babies as the hot California sun beat down on them.

The best part was feeling the stress completely leave by body as I'm watching these gems. And it's made me have a new appreciation for the male and female hummers at my feeders this year. Is there a little bitty nest somewhere that I need to find and hook up a cam for others to see? I'm still looking.