Guest in my Cottage

I had a little guest today.

Can you see her there?

(disclaimer: the photo above is a photoshopped re-ennactment of this event. It was too dim 

in the room to get a good photo. I did not have the lights on because I didn't want her to burn herself. 

So I photoshopped what it looked like and badly I might add...I was in a hurry. Just wanted to set the record 

straight because some of you have questioned the authenticity of this story and photo. 

I don't want to name names but......her initials are BS...hmmmmmm which stands for....

Ol' Eagle Eye, Betsy Speert)

A hummingbird decided to make my little vintage chandelier in the breakfast nook her resting spot 

for several hours this afternoon and evening.

I was working on getting the hutch (new potting bench) in from the car.

I took all the drawers out and found that I could get it out of the back of my car

and could then move it about 6 inches at a time. Only if I carried the whole thing in front of me.

Well, needless to say, this was a process.

I got it as far as the gate and had to take a break.

I came in to read all the comments from my last post.

Many of you scolding me for going out to get it by myself at night.

But many of you also said you would have done the same thing.

So I'm inside awhile and have left the door open because the dogs are running in and out.

I go back to the back door and I hear a buzzing over head.

I think..."that is one big, loud bee"!

Above I see a little hummingbird who I've startled.

She keeps flying towards my blue ceiling in the room.

I can feel the breeze created by her wings and she is chirping teeny tiny chirps.

I talked to her sweetly...but she was scared of the dogs and I.

Of course the dogs were all around.

Only Franklin noticed her and was inquisitively watching.

I felt terrible because I have not yet set out my feeders.

Actually, I still had one that had been out all winter.

I went to get it to clean it and found it beyond cleanable. 

I was frightened this bird would get too hungry in my house and not make it.

So I left the backdoor open in case she flew out and raced to the store to buy 

two feeders. 

I set up one outside where she could see it 

and I hung one on the chandelier.

Still she would not go outside.

I did catch her eating a few times on the inside one.

A quick inquiry on Google told me what to do.

I should turn out all the lights in the house and then the outside lights would beckon to her.

By now it was 9 pm.

She'd been inside since about 6 at least.

After I turned all the lights out...she was gone in just a few minutes.

Out the door she flew.

source

I borrowed these photos from another site. 

I wanted to get my camera and try to get her but it was too dark to get photos of her.

source

I have to say it was so cool to get to watch her so up close for hours. 

I was only about a foot or two from her.

I even tried at one point to hold a red plastic lid up with sugar water in it.

I'd seen this done on YouTube. But you have to take weeks to get the birds used to you holding it.

When this didn't work...that is when I decided I better go get new feeders.

I've been so lax about getting the feeders going this year.

Who would have thought they would come tell me when to do it?

This is the third time I've had hummingbirds in my house. 

You can read about the other two experiences here and here.

Tweet

The Danger of Tissue Paper Flowers

They Seem Innocent Enough

I've had these tissue paper flowers hanging from the chandelier in my dining room for months.

I posted here about a hummingbird flying in through my back patio doors circling

the flowers and coming on into the living room over my head and around and back through the 

rooms and out back through the doors.

I was sure it was attracted to the large flowers it saw inside.

(You can read my tissue paper flowers tutorial here.)

So yesterday, I left the back door open for the dogs to go in and out because it was only like 100 degrees 

out instead of 110 as it had been.

After a bit I went to shut the door because all the weenies were in the house with me.

As I went into the breakfast nook I heard buzzing over my head. 

I thought it to be a locust that had flown in. 

I looked above and to my surprise it was a hummingbird!

Well, all the weenies followed me in there and hummingbirds are frightened of weenies.

I had moved my feeder away from the back deck after the first one flew into the house.

1. because I didn't want one flying in again and 2. because hummers are afraid of weenies so

I thought it better they didn't have to be so near them.

This poor little bird kept flying up to the ceiling because my ceiling is painted blue and 

I think she thought it the sky.

source

I didn't know what to do!

I went outside encouraging the dogs to go out with me...hoping she'd find her way out.

No...she rested on my little tole flower chandelier. She just sat there.

So that wasn't working. 

So I went back in and waved my harms hoping to direct her out.

She again flew up at the ceiling and then flew over to the corner hutch up and behind a large

pink cake platter that I have displayed on top.

I waited a few minutes for her to fly out. Nothing.

So I had to get a chair to stand on. Ladders were in the garage.

I removed the bowls and platter that was up there. And nothing.

I had to stand on my tippy toes to look up over the edge of the cabinet.

There she sat on an old paint rag that I'd inadvertently left up there when I painted.

It's really hard to see on top....so I didn't know I'd left it. 

She was just sitting on the rag. I quickly realized that her wings were covered in cob webs.

hmmmm...appears I have a spider living up there.

I lifted the rag with her on it gingerly.

source

At this point the weenies had lost interest. I think they thought I was working on a project and they'd gone outside.

She sat there so calmly while I lightly and carefully removed the cobwebs from her wings.

source

I would have loved to have taken my own photos of her but I didn't want to stress her.

As soon as the last bit of cobwebs were gone she fluttered and bzzzzzzzzzzz

flew away!

It was the most amazing experience. 

But what if I hadn't seen her fly in? What if I hadn't found her?

She would have quickly died in my house.

I've never had this problem before hanging the tissue paper flowers so I promptly went in the dining room and cut them down. 

Yes, I loved having it look like a party was going to happen at any minute but not at the risk 

of little bird's lives. 

I'm soon changing the chandelier in this room anyway.

I just thought I'd warn you of the danger of tissue paper flowers.

They attract hummingbirds!

I will never forget how soft her little wings were and how calmly she sat while I cleaned them off. 

You would think she would have been fluttering about but no. She just waited for me to remove. 

I was afraid she was hurt, she sat so still. I was so thankful when she just flew away.

Have you ever held a hummingbird? 

I've seen quite a few videos on YouTube of people hand feeding them. 

They are such lovely little creatures.

Tweet

Humming Along

The Gift

Amazing little animals...

I look forward to the little hummingbirds coming back to my backyard every year.

I think of them as part of the family.

When I see them I feel closer to my Father who has been gone almost nine years, now.

About 20 years ago, when I lived far away from him in Georgia, my Dad sent me a hummingbird 

feeder for my birthday one summer. He said to fill it with sugar water and they would come.

My Dad knew me well and knew this was something I would enjoy.

I filled it and hung it diligently an entire summer in the shade outside my apartment window.

He would call and ask if I had any birds yet.

"Not yet." I'd say.

I gave up after several months and not a single flutter despite living in a wooded area with lots of flowers.

After I moved back to Oklahoma and into a house across the street from my Dad, 

I came home one evening to see what I thought was a hummingbird flitting around the pot 

of flowers on my porch.

I called my Dad immediately to tell him what I'd seen.

The next day on my lunch hour I went out and bought a fancy feeder and a book on hummingbirds 

then rushed home after work to put the new feeder out. (I'd long lost the one my father had sent me) 

I'd told everyone at work that day that I finally had my first hummingbird 

and I couldn't wait to get home and see it. 

Sure enough...here came the little buzzing creature.

But it didn't look quite right...

It was really small and had antenna and ignored my feeder and went straight to the flowers.

A quick search on the internet and I discovered that what I had was a MOTH!

Hummingbird Moth

See how they resemble each other. Well, I'm sure moths are lovely...but its not really the same.

Insect?.......Bird?.....I'd much rather a bird.

I went back to work the next day and informed everyone that is was a MOTH. Yuck.

Dad thought it funny.

Soon after moving to this house...I hung the fancy feeder out that I'd bought for the moth.

Nothing...months and months of nothing.

So two years ago...in July....my birthday was coming up. I'd been working a lot. Huge amounts.

I was tired and really didn't care about celebrating my birthday. 

I was depressed about being another year older and things not being so great.

I missed my Dad but I always miss my Dad.

The night before my birthday as I walked the isles at my neighborhood Walmart I saw a plastic 

hummingbird feeder and thought..."Oh...if I could only have one thing for my birthday

it would be that I'd have a hummingbird show up as if sent from my Dad to me for my birthday."

Just as he'd wished that one summer long ago. 

I bought the feeder.

Now, this was early July, I thought probably too late to attract hummingbirds.

I was sure they'd already all found their places to eat for the year. 

Still, something told me to get it and try.

That night, the night before my birthday I mixed the sugar with the hot water and then 

hung the feeder out on my deck in the shade of the red bud tree.

And I said out loud, "Please Dad, send me a hummingbird for my birthday."

But I went to bed not thinking it would happen, expecting to be disappointed.

I'd never seen a hummingbird in my neighborhood and

none of my neighbors ever mentioned feeding them. 

I woke the next morning...and glumly checked the feeder. Nothing....

But that evening as I messed around in the kitchen, I glanced up just as a hummingbird buzzed in 

and started drinking from my new feeder!

I cried. I'd gotten my birthday gift. 

Within a few days I had three different birds that would come in to eat and then fly away 

over the neighbor's trees.

I loved watching them through my patio doors. I felt like my Dad was somewhere still making 

my wishes come true like he always had.

The hummingbirds stayed till late September. Last year I put the feeder up in mid April 

but no hummingbirds showed up till June.

This year, I put the feeder out three weeks ago when I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye...

a hummer fly in and check the spot where it usually hung and fly off...but I wasn't sure.

But I immediately went in and filled the feeder.

Three weeks had gone by and no birds. They usually eat in the early morning and around dusk.

I started to think that even though I'd thought I'd seen one it must have been the infamous hummingbird MOTH or a butterfly!

This afternoon I was working in the yard and thought again that I saw a hummingbird out the corner of my eye. 

It looked like it flew by to see if the food was there but flew away quickly. 

I watched to see if it would come back but it didn't. I started to think I had imagined it.

But then...this evening...about 6 pm. I was sitting in the living room at the farthest end from the patio doors that lead to the deck. 

You can see straight through my house from the front of the living room through the dining room 

and then breakfast nook and out the patio doors to the deck.

I was working on a little project I'll show soon. I'd just sat down and was thinking...

"I don't know why I bother with this. What does it matter that I feel like I need to change up this lamp?

Does it even look good? I think not. What am I doing with my life? I'm just plain pathetic."

Just then I looked up just in time to see and hear a hummingbird come flying in through the open patio doors. 

It flew so fast...I barely had time to realize what it was. 

It flew through the breakfast nook, the dining room and into the living room and circled quickly 

over my head. 

I thought..."Oh, no! What will I do? How will I get him back outside? He'll hurt himself! 

How amazing!" All these thoughts raced through my head. The buzz of his wings was quite loud.

Such a beautiful sound...much different than the sound of an insects wings. Softer.

Anyway, he or rather she, because she was brown, flew over my head and quickly turned and 

made a loop around and back the same way she came! 

Through the three rooms and back out to the deck.

I felt relieved that she'd gotten out so quickly and safely. 

And felt too like she'd come in to say..."I'm here! I'm here!"

I went out and immediately trimmed up the red bud branches a little from which the feeder hangs.

I thought maybe she'd totally missed seeing it and flew past and into the house.

After trimming the tree I looked into the house to this view....

I think she saw the giant pink flowers and flew in thinking she'd found the biggest flora ever!

I laughed and went back inside and hoped she hadn't spooked herself from coming back soon.

I needn't have worried...

When I turned to look outside again, there she was happily flying and drinking from my feeder.

My Father's gift is back and I'm reminded that the world is amazing and perhaps I am too.

Tweet