Spellbinding
Many summers ago, I had baby hummingbirds brought to me for the very first time. We had just had a storm that was so bad that it shut down the power at the Akron/Canton Airport, and it also caused two baby hummingbirds to be orphaned.
Shortly after the storm was over, I got the call from a woman in Green Twp that a mother hummingbird had died in the storm leaving two newborn birds orphaned. Days prior to the storm she had the incredible experience of watching the entire process of a mother hummingbird building a nest near her kitchen window. She watched the first baby hatch on a Sunday and the second hatched on Tuesday, the morning of the storm. Sadly, after the storm was over, the woman checked on the nest and found the mother dead on her patio.
When she arrived at the center, it looked like she had a huge tree in the back seat of her car! So as not to disturb the nest, she had her husband cut off the tree branch, leaves and all! Well, she did a good job because the tiny nest was still intact. After checking the birds, I could immediately see that the babies were in serious trouble. I honestly didn’t believe that they would be alive by bedtime that night. I knew I needed to find the perfect hummingbird formula if these little ones would make it. Dr. Riggs wasn’t available so I called Dr. Nathan. After searching diligently through his books, Dr. Nathan came up with a fantastic formula. Each time I fed those two babies they kept getting bigger, their feathers were growing fast and they seemed to do something new that they had not done the time before. I was mesmerized by these young birds!
The day each of them took their first flight, they landed on my hands for the very first time; it was spellbinding! The oldest took flight at exactly 22 days of age with the younger one taking its first flight at 21 days old. From the instant they each took their first flight, they were vocal and knew to go to the plants to begin eating. Mom did not have to teach them. How amazing nature is!
I released the birds four weeks and one day from their arrival date. They were a thrill to watch and the fact that they were so tiny and survived tells me a higher being had a big hand in their survival. And I too got to be an instrument in the realms of this big wondrous place we call earth. What an experience.
Copyright 2017 Fran Kitchen
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