Ooo I have a few hummingbird stories....pardon the length

It was an early spring morning so still a bit chilly, I was 13 and my
science teacher was outside and beckoned to a bunch of us standing
around. He had something in his hand. He opened it slightly and we
saw a small hummingbird, shivering from the cold. He explained some
science stuff, i forget exactly what he said, but then he cupped the
hummingbird back in his hands and blew warm air into it. he then
opened his hands and the hummer perked up and flew away.

Then back in 2001, when i was working as a receptionist for a dot.com
company, our walkway leading to our front door had a lot of plants and
trees. And I noticed this hummer hanging around. I even got a feeder
for it. Then one evening as I was leaving, I walked out to the
sidewalk and suddenly there was this hummer in my face. I ducked and
moved as it flew towards me and suddenly it gave up and returned to a
tree by the walkway. I slowly approached and realized it was a SHE and
SHE was sitting on a nest.

Unfortunately a few days later she abandoned the nest, so I reached up
and retrieved and it still had three eggs in it. Awww.... The eggs
cracked on the way home, and i think i kept the nest for a while. I
wonder where it is.....

And then last year, when I was heading out to springboard diving
practice from the locker room, my teammate pointed out something on the
chain link fence in the locker room. It was a hummer and he was
clinging on for dear life. The poor thing must have gotten stuck
inside all night. So I gently picked him up and took him outside and
put him on the branch of a bush. I was still thinking of him during
practice. After practice on the way back into the locker room i
noticed that the hummer was still there on the bush. The same teammate
who pointed it out to me said it was probably dead. I showered and got
changed for class and when i came out i decided to take the hummer to
my professor and see if she could do anything. So i put him in my soft
farming hat and wrapped that carefully in my towel.

I took it to the RVT building and the morning surgery lab was in
session (i was in the afternoon lab) I showed it to my classmates and
they were quite amazed. My professor was also pleased that i brought
it in, and everyone shared the sorrow when I told them how the poor
thing had been shut in a locker room with no way out. My professor
said it was probably exhausted then gave a quick 5 minute spiel on
hummers and hummer care but then shooed the students back to the lab.
She found a small box for me and we stuffed it with kleenex. Then she
told me to get a 1 cc syringe with no needle, a small amount of water
and half a packet of sugar. I got them and closed myself up in my
professor's office and held the little guy up to the syringe with sugar
water.

Hummers have really long, really thin tongues and the trick is to get
them to stick their tongue INTO the syringe. After a few tries I got
him to drink some. "Aww, you like that? How about a little more?" I
gave him a tiny bit more to drink then put him back into the box. The
box had no lid so I put my farmhat on top. Then I left.

After about 15 minutes or so I went back into the office to check on
the hummer. I reached down and put my hand on the hat when something
when THUNK. Like something on the inside was trying to get out. I
lifted up my hat VERY slowly and saw the hummer sitting on the nest of
kleenex.

"Hey little guy, you look much better." In saying this I didn't
realize that i also removed my hat. Oops....

*cut to hummer flying out of the box and around the office with me
trying to catch him with my hat, i'm sure to an outsider it would have
been funny*

I finally managed to get him when he landed on a hanging mobile and
swooped him into my hat. Then I opened the door to the outside and
told the little guy to stay away from locker rooms. I took away my
hand and he immediately flew up, hovered in front of me for a split
second and then flew away.

And I went to class with a big smile on my face.


Kristi