A friend suggested I submit a photo of my baby hummingbirds (notice I said “my” as though I gave birth to them?) to the Los Angeles Times for their Reader Photos.

It’s a section on local “Southern California Moments” where they feature all kinds of photos taken around town and guess what?

They picked my photo!! I am so excited! My babies are famous!!

I’m continuing to add daily photos of the birds’ progress in the blog below until they fly away. 🙁 They are three weeks old today.

There’s a link below to the L.A. Times feature.

If you visit the page, please remember to “recommend” it. Thanks!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/reader-photos-southern-california-moments-day-142.html

We discovered the nest in April inside a trumpet vine in our back yard. The baby hummingbirds hatched on May 1st. It’s amazing how quickly they grew. They will be three weeks old tomorrow and they’ll fly away soon. I’ll probably cry and will miss them so much. I hope they stay in the yard and maybe I can recognize them again at the feeders.

Nest was discovered April 19th

Day One (May 1st – 3 hours old)

It wasn’t easy getting this photo. I needed a ladder, a flashlight and some hair clips.

Day Two

The inside of this nest measures only 1/2-inch!

Day Four

They’re resting today and getting bigger (& fuzzier).

Day Seven

It looks like they’ve practically doubled in size in three days.

Day Eight

Taking an afternoon nap, enjoying the California sunshine.

Day Nine

Day Ten

Day Eleven

Day Thirteen

Day Fourteen

Day Fifteen (May 15th)

Day Sixteen

Day Seventeen

Day Eighteen

Day Nineteen

Day Twenty (running out of room)

Day Twenty-One (3 weeks old today – May 21st)

Day Twenty-Two at 3:00

Twenty Minutes Later

Day Twenty-Three

Day Twenty-Four (looks like he’s ready to move out)

Day Twenty-Five (bye-bye, birdies) 🙁

When baby hummingbirds hatch, they have no feathers and dark skin. Babies are hatched with their eyes closed and weigh about 0.62 grams (that’s 1/3 the weight of a dime). They are about one inch long with short, stubby, yellow beaks. The mother will drink nectar and eat bugs and then regurgitate them into the babies’ mouths, feeding them this mixture every 20 minutes. The babies will feel the wind from the wings of their mother and lift their little heads up and open their mouths. It will be about 3 weeks before they fly. Also, mother hummingbirds have no problem re-using another hummingbird’s nest. Sometimes the new mother will move in before the nest has had a chance to cool off from the previous brood. The nests are tiny.

I’m checking every day but no babies yet. This time, mom let me get really close so she either trusts me now or she’s had enough of me and refuses to leave. She sits on the eggs most of the day until the gardener shows up with the blower (it’s okay, he knows about the nest and he’s waiting to see the babies too).

So yesterday, Denis and I drove by a park and I saw something that made me say, “Stop the car! Stop the car!” He thought we hit an animal or something but I said, “There’s a carnival in the park! Maybe there’s a tilt-a-whirl! Let me out – I’m going!”

It was just a weekend carnival but they had all kinds of rides… even the ones that drop you from up high,  but no tilt-a-whirl. 🙁

I got my hopes up for nothing. I love tilt-a-whirls. Maybe it’s because when we were little, my sister and I used to join hands and spin around in circle until we got so dizzy we fell over. Good times.

We found our first hummingbird nest! The birds have been coming around for years but I’ve never seen a nest until now. It’s not even 2 inches across and the eggs? Well, they are about 1/2-inch long. It’s on a trumpet vine stem but it’s well built and secure.

I’ve been checking every day to see if they’ve hatched by setting up a step ladder so I can see inside. Momma bird doesn’t like me.

Every time I get close she flies away and makes a bunch of noise but I try to send a message telepathically that I’m just looking and mean no harm…

But yesterday, she stood her ground and didn’t leave the nest so maybe the babies are coming soon.

I’m checking every day.

It’s my first opportunity to see baby hummingbirds…

… or to make a teensy weensy omelette… 😉

What has scary eyes, waits to come out at night, and whose only goal is to cause destruction? A zombie. And that’s what lives in my back yard. Look at those zombie eyes. Now take a closer look at the picture. See that little yellow thing right in front of him? That’s what’s left of one of the apples on my tree! It’s only April! My apples are still so tiny, even the mangy rat-faced, no-good, low-life, beady-eyed, scum-sucking, apple-stealing squirrel won’t touch them. But they seem to make a nice evening snack for the zombie rabbit.

I ran out and chased him away three times but he came right back. Then I sprayed the tiny apples with an organic but horrible tasting concoction and he still came back. This was war, but I wasn’t going to let him win. I went upstairs to the closet and got my plastic hawk.

Put it right under the tree.

Haven’t seen hide nor hare….

Oh deer.

Something bad happened in my back yard last night.

I’ve come across a lot of things out there, but this is a first. And a sad one, too, but this is nature after all. We found a deer’s leg bone – picked clean. I wonder what happened to it…

Coyotes? Bobcats? Mountain lions? I only have two questions:

1) Where is the body?

2) Why not the squirrel??

Why? Why? Why? There are other trees to pillage. Life was joyous the last few weeks when he was busy eating all the pine cones off my pine tree. I just walked outside to pick the first apple from my new fall crop. It was the nice big one one near the top that I’ve been watching for weeks and today was the day it would be ready to eat. But it’s gone. Stolen by that mangy, rat-faced, no-good, low-life, beady-eyed, scum-sucking, apple-stealing squirrel! I saw him eating it right there under the tree and ran outside as if I could actually catch him. In three seconds, he was up on the roof and gone. And so was the apple I guess because it was no where to be found. This is totally unacceptable. I am so mad!!!!!! I have to do something. But what?  Home Depot doesn’t sell land mines.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw another scorpion in the back yard. At first, it looked like a leaf but I’ve trained myself to study every dirt pile,  leaf, and stick in the back yard. This one looked just like some dried things that fall off the shrubs on the back hill… or ARE they dried things that fall off the shrubs? I used to go outside with my camera – now I go out with a magnifying glass! Seriously. And that scarf around my neck is not about fashion. I always think something’s crawling on my neck. This is no way to live!!!

This house is cursed! Still recovering from the hideous scorpion at my front door last Monday, we were sitting on the patio today at lunch time sipping tea, and a skunk walks by right across the lawn. A skunk. In the middle of the day! Just walking by. Didn’t see us. Didn’t even look over. And he was big. I did not have my camera so this is not his picture – he was bigger than this one. Here’s a list of back yard visitors so far, from biggest to smallest: deer, coyote, bobcat, ring-necked pheasant, red-tailed hawk, mangy, rat-faced, no-good, low-life, beady-eyed, scum-sucking, tomato-stealing squirrel, rat, garter snake, rattle snake, lizard, and scorpion. The only thing that has not visited so far that was just spotted in Burbank is a mountain lion. It wouldn’t surprise me. Maybe they eat squirrels. You gotta have a dream.

Why is this happening to me? This thing was at my front door today! I opened the door and it was inches from coming inside. What?? At first I thought somebody was playing a joke and it was plastic, but then it moved. I was so stunned I truly was speechless. In 40 years of living in Southern California, I have never seen a scorpion. I did not think they lived here. This is bad, right? Not really.

Here’s the really bad news: Denis said, “Oh, there was one in my office last week but I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to scare you.”

“What?!?” (I swear I just felt something on my neck! – I’ve gotta go)