Day 19

O.K., O.K.,  I know I'm beginning to sound like a proud papa; but how can I not be excited and proud of these little hummers.  I know also that beast of a jeep that people  call a hummer is in no way deserving of the admiration and respect that I feel for these two little creatures that are getting very, very close to the age when they will fly away.  It will happen sometime this week.  I'm guessing their first flight will happen on Tuesday, the day when I deliver my good Russian friends to the International Terminal at LAX to catch their late afternoon Aeroflot flight to Moscow. I don't  know the survival statistics, but I'm pretty sure it's a dangerous world out there for hummingbird juveniles. Our hill is home to all kinds of big birds and cats.  I'll worry.

I'll also continue to marvel at the natural phenomenon that makes possible the reality of the appearance of two tiny eggs the size of small jellybeans in an impossibly small nest outside my window... eggs kept warm by a diligent mother hummingbird that left the nest only occasionally to take nourishment for three weeks before the eggs broke open and  released decidedly unattractive blobs of genetic material that would immediately change the nature of her task. For almost three weeks now she has done nothing but fly around all day long searching for food for her chicks.

Day 2

Day 5

Day 9

Day 18