There’s a new nest, high up in the planter closest to our door. This one is cute, with 2 branches sewn together in an X. Lots of spider webs on this one – the last one was lots of lichen. Eggs laid Wed and Thurs (April 21 and 22 – Happy Earth Day!!!)

The babies hatched March 5th and 6th, respectively, and are about the size of honey bees. The top one is the older one – slightly bigger already and has fuzz, the newer one below is more naked looking. You can see the remnants of eggshells under them (it’s funny – last year she chucked them out of the nest right away – see the photo of the size of the eggshells here). In this photo you can really see the spider webs she used to strap the nest onto the

Forgive the lack of posts recently – we’ve been in almost over our heads recently with many back of the house issues to contend with and gladly, we’re very busy in the front of the house, thanks to all of you! But I wanted to let you know that spring has sprung for us in our little courtyard, as we officially have our first hummingbird nest of the season. There’s a tag for hummingbird posts in the category list for this blog – we got some good photos last year

Thanks dog and cat folks for tuning in to our hummingbird news! We wrapped up the season with a little drama. On August 1st we had our annual Fremont Fest celebration, which means the courtyard was crowded and noisy – live music seemed to make the babies even more restless than they had already been – one baby was already stretching up a bit, and looking antsy the day before. While the music was pumping, the chicks were really shifting around – I was nervous that they were going to

Portland’s having a really hot week – it’s 106 degrees right now, and it might even get a bit higher. Mom and both the babies are staying very still, open-mouthed breathing. I’d do anything to get them some water, but it doesn’t seem very possible. I’ll have to trust that they’ll do as well as the last batch did in that terrible lashing storm.

One interesting thing I noticed – on Saturday the 18th, one of the babies from the last brood showed back up and spent the day in the courtyard. All day long I heard him hopefully begging from mom (each time she left the nest or returned he’d vocalize like he used to) It was a busy day in the store, so I couldn’t watch too much and so have no idea if at some point during the day she relented and fed him, but the few times I saw them

If you haven’t been following along, we’ve had an eventful spring filled with lovely hummingbird babies hatching right outside our door. This is the second nest this season that she’s had in our courtyard. How lucky we are! (See older posts for the first nest photos and stories.) Mon July 13th – 1st egg hatched Tues July 14th – 2nd egg hatched – tiny eggshells discarded from the nest Now that the last babies have officially flown the coop, she can dedicate herself to feeding these babies (incredible weight gain

Yesterday was a busy one for mom, as there was a squirrel in the bamboo, and the fool thing seemed stuck up there. It clearly was physically OK and could have left if it wanted to, but it seemed paralyzed with some sort of deep-seated anxiety. He stayed stock still wherever he was, but mom hummer was flipping out. She had one baby in the nest and one was in the branches above, and she was quite upset that there was anyone else in her bamboo nursery. Poor thing –

Two days ago they looked really big. Their bills were getting longer, their feathers looked just about ready, and they were very visible from down below. From above it’s looking pretty tight in that nest Yesterday they seemed more upwardly oriented. One of them in particular started to seem really restless I got one of the best photos yet of mom and babies together. I hope you can make out that their bills are open, asking for food Last night before we left the more restless one was really fidgety,