Hummingbird Nest to Egg

By Alissa Parks

I’ve been tracking this incredible experience for 36 days and I hope you enjoy it here! This is our mama bird. Let’s call her Anna. I had a bur up my butt to trim back the over growing vines on the side fence. I don’t have proper pruning shears so I was gnawing at the thinner branches with kitchen scissors while my chef-husband stood back asking, “you’re gonna sanitize those, right…?”

Then I found this…A teeny, tiny, majestic, luxuriously soft lamby-lined nest the size of a golf ball (a golf ball!). In it lay one little egg the size of a TicTac.

The next day I look again…

I was so excited! There we had nature. Happening right in my humble little yard.

I checked back every day. I kept my distance as to not scare her way permanently. I watched mama build her nest and fluff it up. She line it carefully, adding little bits and pieces. She danced around with her tiny feet turning her eggs. She sat on them day and night and kept her little eggs warm and cozy. She was a very dedicated mama.  It really puts a clear and beautiful understanding to the term “nesting” we go through waiting for our own babies to arrive.

On day 18 I took my daily quick peek and shrieked with excitement. I tripped over my moose-dog basking in the sun as I ran inside to grab my camera (iPhone). Right on target after 18 days of incubation, we had babies!! Teeny tiny ugly little babies. Announcement: We have twins! Gender-neutral gifts, please.

Read the rest of the story here.