I found another hummingbird nest! Part 2

:-( Sunny, I hope you're feeling better soon...also thinking good thought for your parrot.

Boo on the egrets using your fishies as their food source. >:-<

Here's a sunny colored flower for you. ;-)

sunny.....I was having the same problem with egrets one year when our drought conditions had their normal feeding areas dry. So sorry you are experiencing that.
I have a net that is about 1" openings that allows you to see the pond but keeps the egrets out. Also you can put a multiple string fencing with fishing line, around the edge of the water starting about 6" off the ground an making your post about two or 2 1/2 foot tall. I am told they land at the edge then slowly walk into the water, and this will block their access. Hopefully you already have a hiding place at the bottom too.

Ok since this is a bf humming bird forum I will get back on track in saying hope you are on the mend and can catch some pics of the new nest.

If anyone hasn't looked at gardenpom's hummer cam thread yet, you just have to look!! ....that hummer cam is super neat!!! They also have some id links of the hummers that come to drink.

dagnabit...i lost my post!

sunny, i was saying thanks for letting us climb trees with you. There must be an award for Most Excellent tree Climber=)

maybe your young ones will bring their babies back next year.

feel better girlie
(ps. i got MY Annies Annuals catalog last night. on the same day i got a new quilt magazine. i was in HOG heaven lol)

if you and Anjl get to go........take more pictures.

oh. cameras. i had a Canon Powershot A60 for years and absolutely loved it and then i thought i found a good deal but got stiffed on ebay. =(

Nanny...booooo on the ebay stiff. A friend of mine suggested looking for lenses on there for the Nikon I purchased. However, I just don't trust that they will be in good condition. Luckily, we have a camera store that has been around for years in downtown Indy that people can buy refurbished cameras & lens at. Do you have a place like that near your home? If you're not sure, start asking around. You might be surprised.

Kaper, Shelley, Shelia, and Fifi - Thanks so much for the well wishes, the lovely pic, and the suggestions! :-) My little parrotlet is on antibiotics and saline spray, and is full of sass this afternoon, which I take as a good sign. It just breaks my heart to see him sick, and the thought of losing him right now is unimaginable. I have been up since 4 am stressing over this, but he seems better this afternoon. He is mad at me for the two trips to the avian vet, the hospital cage, and the antibiotics. He is a tiny little thing (29 grams), but he sure does express his displeasure well! I figure this must be a good sign.

Sheila, thanks for the suggestions on the egret. It was so surreal to look out my window and find the egret, as my "pond" is an above-ground patio water feature that is only 300 gallons, so the egret was pretty much the same size as the pond! After he made several additional visitations, a friend helped me move some spare window screening over the pond as a temporary measure. I have several hiding spots in the pond, and the fish are doing such a good job of hiding that I don't know who/how many are left. Here is a link to a pic of the pond (the one in front) and my little fish buddies as well, so you can see how odd it was to discover my hungry visitor: http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/i/53789/

I finally made it over to the nest next door again this afternoon. I went last Tuesday because their landscaping crew comes then, and I have been afraid they will kill the babies when they trim the hedge. The crew said they weren’t going to trim the hedge that day, but I had to call their boss to hold them off for additional time. Since I don’t live there it put me in a bit of an awkward position. I finally made it over there again today….and the babies have hatched!!! Below is a pic of the little cuties. I didn’t want to stay longer, so mom could come back and take care of her little ones. I did manage to find one of the neighbors and get him to call the landscaping company to tell them not to trim the hedge tomorrow. He also said he didn’t care if I was over there taking pictures (this is not the same guy I’ve written about previously). So…the plan is that I will be out there in the morning making sure they don’t kill those babies, since when I showed the crew the nest last week they were not impressed at all.

How can they NOT be impressed! (Picture me with a scowling, frowny face)

Me too, Dahlia!

Glad to hear your little guy is on the mend, albeit unhappy with you at the moment. Does he have a sinus infection? One of our birds used to get that a lot and once so bad we had to take her in for irrigations. No fun!! It seems to be a common thing with parrots. Our vet showed us a picture of their sinuses and it's no wonder - they are incredibly intricate.

What a beautiful pond!

Beautiful waterfall and pond in one of the other pictures too. Is your water lilies covering the surface now? I am confused as to how the heron planned to access the pond to get at the fish; unless he was waiting for them to surface.
Here is one that visited us, as we ran it off it stopped in a tree over the neighbor's house. The wing span was 4 foot at least.

I totally agree...who could be immune to such a cuteness? It just isn't right, I tell ya! Thanks for the kind comments on my pond. I have such limited space to plant, so decided to do away with most of the patio in favor of an above-ground "pond."

Kaper, when they did the swab on Quique it showed inflammation and increased levels of bacteria and particulate so I suppose it is a sinus infection. Thankfully his bloodwork came back normal. I had no idea how problematic parrot sinus problems were either, until I got this little guy. He was already sick either when we got him or shortly thereafter, and had to be put on antibiotics then as well. We have been very careful about dust, fumes etc., but he is still having problems. My late parrotlet never had any problems until he was an old guy, and never saw a vet until then either. This was before I knew anything about keeping woodsmoke, dust, teflon, scented sprays etc. away from parrots, so I guess we really lucked out. Wow, I can't even imagine a parrot sinus irrigation...yikes! What kind of parrot?

Sheila, lovely heron...just not in the pond, right? The egret that stops by is a pretty bird and normally I'd be happy to see it...just not when it's making a meal out of my beloved fish! The waterlilies are only just starting to come up, so the pond is looking pretty barren. I'd also just started feeding the fish again, so they had been out cruising around a lot pretty fearlessly. The egret makes a huge mess with lots of splashing, and leaves poop or fish parts (hopefully not that) behind when it leaves. From seeing how small that pond is, you can imagine how bizarre it was to discover what was going on in the backyard! The egret really was the size of the pond...weird!

Here's a fuzzy pic of the egret (this is an egret, right? I am not good with my bird IDs) right after it flew out of the pond. It's sitting on the neighbor's roof. Bad bird!

What fun to see all the hummer photos. We think that we have a pair building a nest in one of our trees. Thanks for sharing this!

Guess you egret and the herons are doing what comes naturally but we pay too much for our ponds for them to do it there!!!! Bad birds! I think next year I may pull one of the water lilies inside and try to get it started under the grow lights so I have leaves quicker. After they cover the surface, I don't have a problem.
Glad QQ's blood work is norm. Taking blood from a small bird would be a difficult thing to do I would think. Birds are sensitive to smells, remember the canary in the mines was the first warning of toxic gases in the air.

Thanks Cactuspatch! I hope you get to see the babies in your tree...it's certainly a wonderful experience. If you do, please let us know :-).

Bad birds, indeed Sheila! I'm so glad to hear the waterlily leaf cover helps with this problem...whew. Then, the only thing I will have to worry about are the darn raccoons. Grrrr. They take blood from Quique by clipping one of his nails too short, and slightly cutting into his toe. Poor little guy...no wonder he is mad at me. I've been super careful with what I expose him to with regards to air quality etc. right from the start, but he has still gotten sick. They are doing construction right outside the house, and even though I've been keeping things closed up because of that, it could still have played a part in all of this. I'm just hoping that he continues to do better today. He is still getting his beauty sleep, but I have high hopes for some mischief out of the little guy today.

Just a couple more hours and I will be on baby hummer patrol...wish me luck.

The best of hummer luck to you sunny!

Thanks Sheila!

My little Quique continues to recover well, and is quite angry at me for giving him his antibiotics and saline spray. I'm having quite a time toweling him to give him his meds, since he goes nuts when he sees the washrag come out. I figure this amount of spunk can only be a good sign. He is out of the hospital cage and back to his trouble-making ways :-).

All went well with the gardening crew on Monday, and between my rusty Spanish and showing them the nest, they got the message. They said they understood and would tell the other guys working there as well. Given that there seems to be a largish group of employees, I am worried that one of these weeks someone won't get the message and will trim the hedge. I'm just hoping that the babies hurry up and fledge, as I continue to be concerned about their safety. I haven't been able to get over there again until this morning, and my oh my they have already grown! Their little pin feathers have turned into real feathers as well...

Here's another shot. I'm able to get much closer to this nest (I could have reached out and touched it, and I'm really short), but all the leaves make it challenging to get any decent pics.

This message was edited Apr 2, 2009 11:50 AM

Here is mom, waiting for me to get away from her nest:

another shot...this is right before she flew high over me, and tried to poop on my head! This must be the same mom LOL.

LOL!!
I wonder if you put a small sign at the bottom of the bush in English and Spanish it would help.

Caution....Hummingbird nesting!

Precaución….¡jerarquización del colibrí!

Tremendous pictures, all!

We have a little hummingbird that's made a nest in a local nursery in Seattle:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/957792/

How cool! I think sometimes that we all get so busy that we don't pay attention to our surroundings. Remember that old adage about making time to stop and smell the roses?

dont cha' just love spring?

true nannie... this thread has me checking out ALL the trees in the neighborhood looking for nests lolol! my neighbors must think I'm nuts...walking the dog but looking up at all the trees as I walk..teehee!

Lovely thread, hummers, egrets, herons, ponds. Thanks for the experience.

Wow, what a treat! Thank you all for sharing the beautiful pictures...it certainly added a bright spot into a cold, wet, and dreary spring day!

Sheila LOL...in all my years of Spanish classes, "¡jerarquización del colibrí!" just never came up somehow ;-). The babies are getting bigger each time I see them, and I hope they will fledge quickly. In the meantime, I will try and be home Tuesday mornings so I can make sure they aren't trimming that hedge (I can see the hedge from my house). And yes, I am just crazy enough to plan my life around hummingbirds, I admit it. hehe

Katie, thanks for the link...I look forward to checking out your thread.

Fifi, I agree, it is so important to stop and smell the roses...or....stop and photograph the hummers, most especially when other things in our lives are stressful and difficult. This whole nest-watching experience couldn't have come at a better time for me, and I am most grateful. Anjl, I'll bet you've got some nests around there somewhere. Just don't walk into a pole or fall into a ditch or something while you're staring upwards (been there, done that. LOL)

Willowwind and Rarejem, thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments! My mom lives up in WA and every time I talk to her she says the same thing...it's been a cold and wet spring so far. I hope you get some sun up there soon :-)

I continue to have problems photographing the babies, but wow, they looked so much bigger again yesterday! They are sitting much higher in the nest as well:

Man, these babies are not neat poopers like the last batch. It's everywhere!

They really are getting big!

Mom saw me checking out her babies, flew over me to distract me, and led me over to the plum tree again:

Those little nests are works of art. Lucky you.

They really are amazing creations!

Here's the update for today: the babies look even bigger than they did yesterday. It's amazing. Since it's the weekend, there were lots of cars and people around, and I got a few weird looks...but that was it. The couple who lives in one of the houses directly across from the nest came home while I was snapping pictures, so I figured I'd better tell them what I was doing. The man opened the trunk of his car, got his camera and a big lens, and then came over and started snapping pictures! That's a first. LOL.

Here they are:

This is the first pic I've gotten of both of their heads:

Another angle...they are getting too big for the nest already!

One last pic for tonight, just because they are so cute :-)

Outstanding photos, Sunny. I doubt your neighbor did much better with his big camera and lenses!

Thanks so much! Today I discovered that the lighting is better in the afternoon...I'll be out there around 3 pm now, instead of 9 am ;-).

Sunny, such beautiful pictures and the commentary is a hoot.

What amazing pictures. I feel like I can reach out and touch them . . .

Great photos. It will make a fun album for you too. So fun for us to share the excitement.

Thank you for the kind words Margaret, Katie, and Cactuspatch! It is so wonderful to get to see another nest from this lower, different angle. It is Tuesday once again, and I spent the morning waiting for the gardeners to show up, so I could remind them about the nest. I hate making a pest out of myself, but there were two truckloads of guys and it would be so easy for someone to forget/not get the message and trim that hedge. The good news is I think the babies are going to fledge within the next few days, so I won't have to worry about this again. I took some photos yesterday afternoon which I will post. It was hot (supposed to get into the 80's, never checked to see how hot is actually got). Oddly enough, it is cool and rainy today. This is actually really good, as we still desperately need rain.

Here's a pic of them soaking up a bit of afternoon sun:

another angle:

I left for a few minutes so mom could feed them, and when I came back they were getting a bit sleepy...