Remember that hummingbird nest I mentioned awhile back? I checked it yesterday afternoon, and the 2 nestlings looked like actual birds. They were well past the lizard stage with wrinkly round chameleon eyes and serrated iguana ridges where pinfeathers were forming. They had grown real hummingbird beaks. One youngster was nicely contoured with a green tint above and a gray-speckled throat. The other looked a bit scruffier. It had all the feathers but they were not as open or lying as neatly, and they were more buff-tipped above. I could still see a bit of sheath on the outermost primary of that one, but the wings were generally hidden from view due to the upward viewing angle and the birds' position in the nest. Actually the nestlings were more on than in the nest for the past several days, and yesterday I could see a black-clawed pink toe gripping the rim.
Standing side by side, they took turns exercising their wings behind the other's back. "Scruffy" was curious, probing the nest with its bill, tasting nearby leaves (including where they had defecated), and poking its sibling, not in a mean way, but not random either. "Svelte" looked dignified, and stayed still more, maybe having already done that exploration. Both tracked a nearby flying insect with their bills. And when mama alit on the rim they stretched up, and opened their rather dangerous bills to receive regurgitant pumped deep inside them through an even more dangerous bill. I checked again this morning about 5:45 between taxi calls, but the leaves were so droopy I couldn't see the nest in the sole sometimes-possible line of sight. (On Monday I had also looked from the taxi just before a storm. Those kids had quite a ride with the branch going up & down, but one of the leaves acted as a wind screen for them.) I checked again today from the taxi at 11:30am and finally got a view. The rim of the nest was an unbroken line, although the youngsters haven't been able to hide inside the cup for days. I got out for a closer look to double check. They were gone off into the wide world. A bit more about this nest. It's on one of several branches drooping down toward Fall Creek. It's not close enough to the water to be in danger from flooding, but there are other risks. It's next to a popular fishing spot. There's line tangled in an adjacent branch, and one time I arrived to find an angler trying to yank free a line and hook caught in a different adjacent branch, but shaking everything nearby. I mentioned to the angler that there was a bird nest in there, and the person packed up and left, perhaps a bit embarrassed at catching the tree instead of a fish. Meanwhile, I moved to the one line of sight where I could view the nest, and it still had babies. Perhaps that event was just another storm to them. Another time when I saw someone move along the bank right next to the nest to fish, I pointed out the nest and asked that they be extra careful, and that person obligingly moved a bit farther away. It's true that the mama chose to nest there despite people along the path and people fishing and canoeing, so the bird was clearly somewhat tolerant of humans, but if it was going to get disturbed I didn't want it to be birders' fault. The mama definitely noticed me when I was close, so I was only close for limited periods and late in the nesting. Anyway, I apologize for not having shared the nest's location, and for being vague to people on the path who asked what I was looking at. I feared that a constant stream of birders trying to see and photograph it might be too much. I made one exception. Melissa Groo, whom you all know as a wonderful photographer, asked if she could discreetly try her hand, and I thought it would be good to have high quality documentation, knowing that she would be very careful. She made several visits despite a busy schedule and the fact that the nest was frustratingly hard to view among the leaves. I also documented the progress of the nesting, and my photography got better during that six weeks. I hope to put together a more complete and illustrated story which might be worthy of an article in the Cayuga Bird Club newsletter. --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
