Dreary Saturday

As I look out my office window I can see a hummingbird on the feeder but there's something wrong. The hummingbird has a broken beak. I brought Bob back to see - our poor resident hummingbird has damaged it's beak and is having problems feeding. It seems very lethargic. It's puffed up and quiet which is quite the opposite of the metabolic active makeup of a hummingbird. We speculate how it could have broken it's beak but knowing first hand the whizzing and zooming the hummers are so famous for it wouldn't be difficult for an accident to happen. Just yesterday a couple of doves flew into our sliding glass doors in the living room.

This photo was taken last summer and is a of the feeder outside my office window, and the hummer is a male hummer. This is NOT the sick hummer with a broken beak.

It is raining now but the feeder is under the eaves and is protected from the raindrops. This hummer looks like a baby but it's too soon for babies to be hatching. Bob says its a female. We do have several hummers that stay around our neighborhood through our mild winters. The hummer is sitting too quietly. As you can see, there is a rail around the feeder so the hummer's two tiny claws are holding on tightly. It's raining harder now but so far it's out of the reach of the rain drops.

We are expecting rain for several days and supposedly a lot of the wet stuff. Our Mt. Charleston snow lodge already got 10 inches of snow on top of what was there - good for the ski business. The lodge is about an hours drive from our house. We are way over on the other side of Las Vegas. We are grateful for the rain - we need it.

As I do experience the chills from the cold rain and humidity which is unusual here in our desert valley, I am reminiscent of a blog comment a couple days ago from the grandma in Pennsylvania and she wrote the temp at her place was 2 degrees!!! I will not complain.

The hummingbird has left the feeder. We'll be curious all day and checking for its survival - there's nothing we can do. Moments later - - - - it's back. It has flown away and come back to feed. I'll try to take a photo but I don't want to disturb her while she is feeding.

I took this photo from inside my office window a few minutes ago - the feeder is about 18 in. from my window, I did not use a flash, I was afraid I would scare the hummer. I used my telefoto lense the closest I could to the image - I know if I had a Canon I would have gotten a better photo, but this will do. As you can see, the hummer's beak is split. She is inserting the lower beak into the feeder hole and evidentally she is getting something because she continually feeds. She has flown away several times and come back. We'll continue to monitor her presence.