[obol] Calliope Hummingbird experience

[falco at highdesertair.com]

Today my wife (Bridget) and I had a pleasant experience that I thought you
all might enjoy hearing about. This morning we both noticed a Calliope
Hummingbird frequenting the potted petunias at the entrance to our place of
employ at Crystal Crane Hotsprings(on hwy 78 out of Burns). She was buzzing
around the flowers where we take our breaks, completely oblivious to our
near presence. Later I observed her to fly over to the tub house, presumably
to find shelter from the thunder storm winds that were just beginning to
arrive. At some point this afternoon, one of our guests presented Bridget
with an exhausted and flightless hummingbird wrapped carefully in a
handkerchief. It was completely lethargic and seemingly near death.
Apparently she had become entangled in a mass of spider web and fought for
freedom just too long. Bridget took the little guy from our guest, removed
the majority of the offending webs from her feet, beak, and wings.

The rest of the afternoon we watched the little bird struggle to make up for
lost time. After she was placed in a pot of enticing petunias, she would fly
to a flower and stuff her little head into it and then fall to the ground in
exhaustion with wings extended. We were really worried about her and watched
her struggle, for about an hour and a half, to acquire more food energy than
she had spent during her fight to escape the spider webs. It was
heartbreaking to watch. We could tell from her wing beat and flight profile,
that she was getting progressively weaker as she continued. The situation
degradated to the point where she was simply to tired to fly....or flee when
approached.

So we decided to try an extreme measure. We poured a few drops of
sugar-water into a picked bloom and offered it to her. It is amazing that,
even when in our hands, she would plunge her head into a bloom to feed. The
sugar-water did the trick and soon she was buzzing all over the
place....finding her own nectar. We worried at first, for the thunderstorms
kept coming and blowing her WAY downwind. We could tell though, that she had
healed, for a minute later she would be back at our potted petunias.

I look forward to the break of day when she will awaken from her nocturnal
torpidity to again frequent our flowers in preparation for the long journey
to come.

Ron Kearney
Crane, OR USA