Hen update with photo. The Stalwart Hen and her Nidlings (the Anna’s hummingbird and her nestlings in our backyard pinetree) are still hanging in there, despite a night of unseasonal wind and cool rain. In this photo, the bottom side of the tip of one of the nidling’s beaks is just visible at the left edge of the nest, above a nearly horizontal pine needle. From the upper window, I can see two nestlings clearly, but the window screen makes focusing a photo tough from there. The two Nidlings have grown enough so that they fill the cup of the nest, and their little beaks stick upward over the edge. Each day the beaks are getting longer and darker, but they’re still nowhere near final hummer-length. Go Hen Go!
[…] out in the open in their form, hatchling praying mantids swarming out of their bread-loaf egg-case, nest-cached hummingbirds waiting for mother to dispense nectar-and-gnat soup, even young raccoons trundling behind their […]