Coming out into the garage tonight, I looked at the apron out onto the driveway and saw something buzzing and flapping around the asphalt. We've had some really, really big cicadas this year, and the occasional polyphemus or other monster-sized moth. But this didn't look like any of those.
On further inspection, it turned out to be - - of all things - - a hummingbird that had somehow gotten the leading edge of one of its wings tangled in something, and now it didn't have the wing aerodynamics to take off again, leaving it to buzz around the asphalt. (actual photo at left with tangled wing)I went to it and saw that it had a piece of poly tarp thread attached to its wing, along with what appeared to be a sticky residue of some sort that had deformed its leading wing feather. Scooping it up in my hands, I called my CEO (Chief Everything Officer) and asked her to come help. Working together, we removed the tarp thread, but something was still fouling its wings.
About this time, Big and Little Red came out for a look-see and we realized that this was probably the first and last times that we would ever see a live hummingbird this close, much less hold it. Lots of excitement, and we gave her a name (Rose). We gave it direct access to our feeder, and it drank the sugar water nectar with real gusto. We got to see her stick out her tongue and open her beak, and after a few drinks, she seemed better. We set her up in the gerbil cage of our recently departed rodents and tried to figure out what to do next. Given what appeared to be sticky stuff on her wing, we assumed that she would need a serious wing cleaning of some sort, or would need to have her wings clipped while she regrew her feathers (in captivity).
Long story short, after Big/Little Red went to bed, CEO and I took a long hard look at the problem and decided we would see if we could help clean up the wing. With a little exploration, we determined that the sticky mess was actually very fine thread wrapped around her feathers, which was removed with a little delicate maneuvering with tweezers. After our procedure, she seemed a little shell-
shocked, we we left her alone in the cage we'd set up for her. Halfway through putting away the dishes, I went back to look and saw that she was now freely flying around the cage, bumping into the mesh top and waiting for her parole. We took her out back and she flew off into the evening's darkness to roost, clean herself up and reflect on the benevolent giants who helped her out tonight.(Image courtesy of drash at weatherunderground.com)
p.s. The Perseid shower was a bust. One or two meteor streaks, and I went to bed.
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