It was quite a day over here in the chaos household. Our pure excitement over our little hummingbird visitor turned to tragedy when an errant soccerball went flying into the small tree that held the tiny nest of eggs. I wasn't even aware that it had happened until I heard sobbing coming ffrom Carlos' room. I was able to decipher through all the hyperventilating and crying something to the effect of: soccerball, eggs, ground, killed, I didn't mean it....... I immediately ran to the back yard thinking it all had to be a horrible mistake. There was no way this could have possibly happened because not more than 20 minutes ago I specifically told him to "stop kicking that soccer ball around in the yard. We have eggs incubating here!"
I climbed on the chair; peered into the nest and saw one lone little feather sticking up. I think it's a bird's version of the finger........
Very sad. Just the day before we had looked up all the facts and trivia on hummingbirds. I was keeping daily update on my facebook page. I already had blog posts in my head about how the mama bird sat so still and statuesque in her nest due to the fact she was reserving all her energy for those midnight feedings as well as pondering whether she should go back to work or stay at home. I was ready to install a live web cam........
And then with one kick of the soccer ball, all dreams and excitement came crashing down on the cement. I made an emergency facebook message to my friend Fie who is an expert in birds with questions like.....should we put the cracked eggs back in the nest.....will the mama come back....do you think she's sad and crying in some tree......will we be banned in the hummingbird community as a housing option.....will she bring all her mean "other side of the tracks" hummingbird friends back to attack us....how easily swayed are they with a fancy double deck hummingbird feeder....
Luckily she wrote back very comforing words to me. She said "she is probably already working on her next nest"....and some not so comforting words......"just not in your backyard." I'm fine with that. Sort of. I guess I just can't be trusted with a bird nest in the backyard.
So goodbye little hummingbird that brought so much joy to our family for two days. You and your little eggs will be missed.......
Ok...I'm off to buy the fanciest hummingbird feeder I can find.......Talk to you soon...Karin
