A tiny visitor

Yesterday evening, my parents' last dinner with us this trip, Norris was getting ready to grill on the screened porch and we started to set the table on the deck. One of our little hummers got trapped in the screened porch. He tried very hard to escape by going up and beating against the screens. We left the doors open while we ate, hoping he'd figure out he needed to come down to get out, and that if we weren't cooking and going in and out of the porch, he might think about it, but it didn't happen. So he was trapped there for probably 30-45 minutes.

After dinner, Norris brought the long extension ladder from the garage, and he climbed up and down a few times, trying to shoo the bird out first with a towel and later with a long handled mop, after which the little fellow just started clinging to the screen. At one point, Norris plucked him off the screen with his bare hand, but then the bird started fluttering which so shocked Norris, who was desparate not to hurt him, he let him go and decided on a new tactic.

Norris was able to use a washcloth to capture the bird and placed him, wrapped in the cloth, in a cardboard box which he handed down to me. I took him out near the feeder he visits several times daily, opened the box and unwrapped the wash cloth (with three witnesses of course!) The exhausted little guy just sat there not moving, giving us plenty of time to get the camera and take a couple of pictures.



We left him alone but he didn't leave. Dad finally tilted the box which encouraged him to fly away. We think we've only had two females and one male hummer at our feeders, and Mom saw one just like this this morning, so we hope he recovered from the ordeal last night.