Hi everyone. I've shut down the camera until we have another nest-full of eggs or some other event worth publishing.
Thanks to everyone for their great words of encouragement. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it as much as I. At one point we had almost 1000 concurrent viewers! I never expected it to get that popular.
Have a great summer!
Here is the video of the second hummingbird leaving the nest.
See the comment by one of our viewers that gives a first-hand account as she watched the bird leave. That comment can be seen on the post from Saturday.
As you can tell, both babies flew away today. Kind of sad after watching them intently for weeks.
The older one flew around 7:30 AM PST when I opened the back door. I guess he needed some impetuous to actually fly off. He went so fast that I couldn't tell where he went. I watched for him all day, but didn't see him at all. I did keep the dog and cat in the house, however!
The second one flew off just a few minutes ago (6:50 PM PST). Someone wrote to tell me he was on the edge of the nest looking like he was going to fly. By the time I looked he had already gone.
I did see that I got the second one flying off with the mother bird on video. I will post that in a few minutes.
One other interesting note: The mother bird keeps primping the empty next. She's got to know they are long gone. Is there any reason to keep primping? Is she expecting to lay more?
Several times we've seen the largest baby just about take off. He starts flapping like crazy, but then stops and settles back down.
For those of you who have been asking, yes, we are keeping the cat and dog in the house just in case. It probably takes a lot of bravery to leave the nest in the first place.... let alone with a cat and dog below!
If you have been watching, they are often stretching their wings. You can’t blame them, there isn’t much room left in that nest!
It is hard to believe they have grown enough to be ready to fly. Check this picture out from June 18, just 15 days ago. They have grown so much - probably to three times their size.
There have been several interesting viewer pics coming in. Check these out!
Lunchtime! Please stick that long needle down my throat!
Shep, the cat, shows he could care less about baby birds.
Even Hobie the dog gets into the shot sometimes! Here, she is dutifully watching the sprinklers (One of her dog-jobs that she takes seriously.)
My personal favorite. Can you see mom zooming away from the nest?
Hi All - we had a technical problem yesterday. Sorry about that. We got it fixed just in time for them to fly. -B
