Empty nest

Spotted this morning.

They grow so quickly

The local hummingbird chicks are starting to look remarkably birdlike.

Remember my exceptionally dimwitted local hummingbird? It recently hatched two tiny hummingbird chicks:



The house key in the corner is supposed to be for scale, but there are perspective problems that render it pretty useless. The loquat in the background is probably a better visual guide. Suffice it to say that these are small birds.

Well, that was terrifying.

Last night the hummingbird that has unwisely nested right outside the kitchen door flew into the kitchen, with its wings frenetically buzzing, as hummingbird wings do. It kept jousting at the ceiling light and flying at windows and generally panicking, but failing to panic its way out a window. Twice it nearly gave me a heart attack by suddenly ceasing all movement, making me think it had managed to kill itself. Among the many notions I do not relish is that of a dead hummingbird in the kitchen. I finally got it outside by herding it with a broom until this tiny bird with its tiny, tiny bird brain decided to just perch on the broom, at which point I was able to actually carry it outside. And then I shut the windows.

Not cool, hummingbird.

The hummingbird where it belongs, in its stupidly placed nest in the loquat tree outside.