Sunday, January 31, 2010

operation save baby hummingbirds and other news


oh hai!
i know i know, i dropped off the face of the earth. if you have been following my blog for long you should be used to my blog hiatus's by now. :/ ha
now on to the juicy stuff!
i had a very amazing experience with a little hummingbird that had built her little hummingbird nest right outside my living room window. here is the short version of the story (with pictures)

brief background: i first noticed my little hummingbird friend (whom i have named dorothy) about a month ago, she built her little nest in the avocado tree that shelters my driveway. the branches extend over the driveway and almost all the way to my house. i park my car under said tree branches. her nest is about 3 feet from my window, i can see everything she does and it is so awesome to watch her. i love her very much.

the story: friday night i am sitting at my desk making something and i hear strange noises and notice my flood light outside going on and off. turns out, my cat sparky had torn the nest down! all i saw was white shredded nest all over my black car. i go outside to investigate and this is what i find on my windshield:


i almost didn't see them. the egg in the picture is a partially hatched baby and the baby, well, is a healthy little baby humming bird that clearly had just hatched earlier that day.
my cat had COMPLETELY destroyed the nest, i was at a loss as to what to do, but clearly i couldn't just leave them to die on my windshield. so i quickly brought them inside and made a little makeshift nest with some wool felt and a plastic tub and put them next to a heater while i tried to find a solution to this problem.

during a frantic phone call to a sweet and lovely mr. allan leavell, he suggested to me that perhaps i should use my skills to make a new nest to replace the destroyed one. (for the record, i thought this was a crazy idea, but what else was i going to do about it at 12am) so, i got out some wool roving and proceeded to needle felt a new nest. i thought it was a shot in the dark, but there was nothing to lose. the babies were far too tiny to be nursed by a human. i was able to salvage some of the super soft lining the mama had used and line the inside of my nest. (see the baby in there?)


SO i made the nest, put the babies in the nest and hot glued the nest back up into the tree where the old nest had been. really not sure if it would work or not. all i could think about for the rest of the night was if those little birds were out there freezing to death because mama didn't come back.
FIRST thing in the morning i go and look to see if they had survived and this is what i see:

mama hummingbird sitting on her babies in the nest i made!
i have officially done a collaboration with a hummingbird. cool!

so anyhow. in other news.
many changes have taken place in the last few months, one of them being, hi tree studio moving back into my house. now, you might think this is a bad thing right? negative growth? nooooo. not at all. my one year stint having hi tree in the avenue 50 studio was PRICELESS. the people i met (sonia romero) and all the art walks and shows i took part in were such a great experience for me as an artist. but now, i need to be able to work as much as possible and one thing that i have learned from having my studio located somewhere other than my house is that, well, its really hard to create on time constraints! 9-5 doesn't cut it for me. i like to work in the middle of the night or whenever i feel like it, and i can't do that as a single mother and a studio 8 blocks away from where i spend most of my time. i am so excited! and relieved!

12 comments:

finnybird said...

hummingbirds are precious

Unknown said...

you are precious <3

The Rainbow Room said...

Love this story : )

Absolutely Small said...

Aw!! This is so amazing! I'm so glad the nest worked out. You are very very sweet for doing this. ^-^

indie icing said...

now that is amazing! so much better than anything i've ever done with hot glue.

Simone said...

That was the cutest story ever! I'm so happy it worked out!
any hummingbird inspired stuff soon? :]

chinamommy said...

Oh my little one just had to do a report on hummingbirds... too bad I didn't see this before it was due! :) How very cool...
~m

Rachel B said...

Tina! That is one of the most amazing animal rescue stories I've ever heard. It makes me so happy that Dorothy and her baby are doing well. Seriously, I've always been told that the mother will abandon the baby if it is handled by a human (because of the scent)but you've proved that theory wrong for sure.
Thanks for sharing this with us!

karmin mikaela said...

Amazing and wonderful! Watch that kitty cat!

Blair McLeod said...

this is the best thing i have read all day!! this was my dream every day growing up... so so cute! way to go.

I was "bloghopping" and just found your blog for the first time. I became a follower and look forward to keeping up with you.

I'd love for you to visit my blog too. I'm in the midst of redesigning and redefining whats its all about, but I'd love for you and any readers to become a follower.

Thanks & happy blogging!

Michele said...

Yay! So glad it worked and the babies were safe!

Shannon said...

i have so much admiration for what you did to rescue the hummingbird babies. there is a family of hummingbirds that lives at my house and sits on the fence on my garden/takes showers in the sprinkler/visits all the flowers. really that is so so so awesome of you.

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