A few weeks ago we noticed a tiny hummingbird sitting on a nest in our favorite shade tree. Since then we've enjoyed watching the beginning of two new little lives. The nest is right over our heads when we sit on our porch swing, so we have a perfect view of the bottom of the nest, and we can watch the mama come and go.
Hummingbird nests are made of bits of garden fluff glued together with cobwebs and spiderwebs, and are no larger than a golf ball. You can read about them here. The first time we peeked in we saw two jellybean-sized eggs. Later, I taped a mirror to a stick and looked into the nest that way, and saw two tiny naked birds.
After that, whenever I'd try to look when mama wasn't there, she would suddenly show up and fly in circles near my ear as though she was telling me to LEAVE RIGHT NOW! So I'd immediately get off my stepstool and take my camera and my self back into the house. That little bird (about 3" long) is very bossy!
Now the babies are so big they fill up the nest.
Mama sometimes perches on top of them, but I really don't believe there's much room. I expect that soon she'll let them fly off, and we'll have two new birds in our garden. I hope I'll be lucky enough to see them taking their first steps into the world.
I'm linked to Cottage Garden Party #11 and Mosaic Monday.
