The nest I've been monitoring at a distance through a scope still seems to be doing okay. I don't check it every day because I don't want to call attention to it. It is very well hidden yet located near so much human activity that natural predation may be reduced, but I am concerned that inadvertent or intentional poking around the area by people could disturb or destroy it.
When I checked it on Thursday 29 June the female was initially not present but arrived very soon and settled onto the nest. Incubation? But she didn't sit still and didn't stay long. She flew off for less than a minute, then sat on the nest for a couple minutes. That was the pattern - she would immediately sit, but her tail vibrated slightly, and sometimes her back arched, and she shifted as if a bit uncomfortable, and she looked around, and soon flew off again - until about the tenth time she returned, when she stood on the rim and poked her bill vertically into the nest, and I saw the tip of a tiny bill rise to meet her and get fed. Then she sat down and resumed the pattern of dividing her time between brooding and foraging, with the trips going and returning in varied directions. I think she may have been watching for airborne prey while she brooded. I saw 2 more feedings that day, once with her bill descending into 2 different parts of the cup, and once only on the opposite side from where I first saw the bill. This indicated to me a typical brood of 2. Once when the adult was not present I also saw a bit of activity on that more hidden side of the nest which culminated in a turd being shot up onto an overhanging leaf, where it stuck for awhile, looking like a tiny dark brown stationary insect larva, about the length and diameter of the adult's bill. That large leaf functioned as a parasol, and probably protected the nest from rain, as well as hiding it from overhead view. Another interesting observation that day was, once while the female was brooding a second adult female flew through my scope view and briefly hovered close by to look at her, eliciting no apparent reaction. I checked again today (2 July), and the nest was much more difficult for me to re-find. The parasol/umbrella leaf has been bent down and caught on a twig to one side of the nest, so that it no longer protects the nest from the weather. Instead the leaf completely blocks the better of 2 directions I could view the nest. I figured out it was the correct leaf because it had several tiny defecations on it, and occasionally I could see the shadow of the female's bill on the leaf as she sat in the sun. Although the nest is now even less liable to be seen by people, it is more exposed to sun and rain and predators' view from above. Also I'm guessing that the wind which bent that leaf around must have been pretty violent, much greater than the typical but substantial movement of the thin branches in the breeze. There is another tiny window to view the nest through several layers of foliage from another direction, so today I watched from there, although it's harder because every zephyr either moves the nest out of view or brings some other leaf in front. Nonetheless I saw that the female spends less time on the nest. In fact, she was absent for so long when I finally re-found the nest that I wondered if it had failed, and there was additional reason to suspect violent disturbance as well. But finally she arrived and fed 2 minuscule nestlings. I saw both tiny bills arise, and once one of the birds stretched up so much to be fed that I saw its scrawny pink neck, round naked head, and dark bulbous (sealed-?) closed eye, as well as its still-broadly-angled, yellow-edged bill. Sometimes Mama's long bill is mostly visible during the operation, but sometimes it goes all the way into the baby, so that the tips of the little one's bill seems to touch her chin and forehead. I have some bad photos. When I think of how small an adult hummingbird is, it's hard to imagine how tiny a chick is. Anyway, that's the news. --Dave Nutter > On Jun 17, 2017, at 8:17 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: > > As for hummingbirds, sample size 2, we still have a female attending our > feeder, and the nest-start which I discovered on the 6th appeared complete by > the 12th, with incubation starting by the 13th, still underway today (17th), > and with luck to continue for some time. > --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/ --
