A ‘Humdinger’ of a Morning!

I do miss a lot just because I’m not a real morning person… I’ve noted that now that I’m retired and I don’t have to get up in the morning to rush off to work…I just take a lot longer to start my engines and reach full functionality. 

So…the other morning while I was struggling to get my act together, I missed yet another drama right here at our home in East Tennessee!

So…onto the story… As usual, Laurie was up and functioning before I could clear my eyes and see.  When she opened the drapes overlooking the deck, she spotted this little female Hummingbird…laying lifeless near the windows.  It’s speculated, that while fighting over ownership of the hummingbird feeder, one of her competitors drove her into the glass.  Of course, Laurie’s fear was that she’d broken her neck and wouldn’t survive.

So, she picked up this nearly weightless creature and she started talking to it and stroking it’s feathers and tail to stimulate the bird and to see if it could or would be able to recover from it’s crash landing… In the photo above, the bird had responded a little bit and Laurie took down our feeder from its hook, put it on our deck rail and she perched the Hummingbird on the feeder but it’s eyes remained closed.

Because I was not yet in action, Laurie had to run back into the house to grab her camera in order to take these pictures… Shortly after this photo was taken, the Hummingbird opened it’s eyes and began moving a bit more.  Laurie kept talking to it and touching it’s tail feathers to help bring it around. 

Finally, good news!  Another Hummingbird came looking for the feeder and, hearing the fluttering of it’s wings, this little lady snapped out of it and after a couple of ‘practice’ flutters of her own, she was off like a shot of light!  Five minutes later, she was fighting with the other hummingbirds for ‘feeder’ dominance!  It was an amazing experience to say the least!  Very happy that she was able to save this beautiful bird.

Sorry I missed all this action…!  Fact is, Laurie is also my ‘critter’ person.  She can spot wild animals like no one else.  Last night, we sat down on our front porch for a few minutes and she pulled a “Babe Ruth” on me.  She said that this is just about the time that our neighborhood fox likes to walk down the street in front of our house.  About 2 minutes later, there he or she was…casual as can be...loping up our side garden bed and on to the street in front of our house.  At least I was awake and functioning for that one!

Click on the photos to enlarge them…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie