If you want to follow another hummingbird, there is a webcam site www.phoebeallens.com The mother bird is sitting on her eggs, which should be hatching soon. She is a beautiful subspecies of the Allens. Check it out.

Terrene - When I clicked on your link, it wanted me to register but I found the same video on Youtube and will link it below. I loved this video. It's so cool to watch the hummingbird fly around and come back and land on his finger. Here is a link that might be useful: Rescued Baby Hummingbird

cheryllynn744: (The thread that will never end :-) Your question is what started this thread, lo, those many years ago. Best thing I've been able to do is to use one of those New Year's noise-makers that you crank that makes an ungodly noise--something the hawk has not previously heard that will freak him/her out. I have a stuffed owl up in my back yard, and it might as well not be there. For me, it worked fine for a week, and every bird in the vicinity was stressed out and came to squawk at it from a safe distance, and some were bold enough to get quite close. Couple of Bluebirds flew right above it, and hovered (as Bluebirds will) for a few moments, checking it out. But unless you move the decoy almost daily, songbirds soon learn that it is no threat to them, and they won't pay any more attention to it. Been there for about a year, and most of its feathers are gone, but it still has the silouhette of an owl--to no avail. -------------------------------------------------------- Recent hawk episode for me involved a dove nesting in my window sill. Doves--like pigeons--are "ledge nesters", and sometimes only place a few sticks on a ledge to keep the (2) eggs from rolling away. My dove built a little more elaborate nest, with lots of sticks forming a nest between my double-hung window and double-hung storm window, about 4 inches apart. I had the storm window raised about 10 inches, quite by mistake, and a dove nested there last year (between the 2 windows) and fledged 2 baby doves. Success! Another dove used the same nest this year, and added sticks to it. Unfortunately, the dove began setting on eggs about March 4th, where there were no leaves on the trees (yet) in my area, and the dove was more visible than last year. One morning about 2 weeks ago, I heard a THUMP on the window about daylight, and I opened the curtain and looked out. The dove was gone, the 2 white eggs were exposed in the nest, and a Peregrine Falcon was sitting on a tree limb outside the window, no more than 3 or 4 feet away. The Falcon saw me through the window pane, and flew off. The dove stayed away the rest of the day, and did not come back and begin setting on the eggs (again) until the next day. I thought it was rather remarkable that it even returned, after being attacked by a hawk (falcon). I had no idea how it survived the attack, since it seemed more-or-less trapped there, inside the two windows. But the THUMP sounded like the falcon hitting the window, so somehow, it slipped away. Maybe the falcon tried to attack from above, and hit the glass above the dove. I had an idea the falcon would come back and try again and sure enough, about 4 days later, another WHUMP on the window. Same result--I looked out, the dove was gone, the eggs were exposed, and the Peregrine Falcon was 3 or 4 feet away on a tree branch. But this time, I had gotten my crank, New Year's noise-maker out of the closet and had it on my dresser. I grabbed it, and ran up the hall and opened the front door as quietly as I could. The falcon was still sitting in the tree, and I eased out and cranked-out a bunch of raucous noise while running toward the tree, and the falcon freaked out and flew out of the tree. Unbelievable that the dove returned AGAIN, only a few hours later, and began setting on its eggs again, the very same day, after (somehow) surviving the second strike by the Peregrine Falcon!! Again, it sounded like the falcon hit the glass above the dove. The falcon did not return, and the dove continued setting for about 3 or 4 more days. Then one morning I heard noise in the window, and I peeped out to see the dove turning the eggs over beneath it, and it appeared to be examining them. Soon after, it flew away, and left the nest and the eggs, and did not return. After the dove did not come back many days later, it was obvious the dove had abandoned the nest, and I raised the window and got the 2 eggs out, and put them in my basement. I have an idea what I will find when I crack them open; I think I'll find 2 babies that were nearly ready to hatch until the dove flew away after the first falcon strike and stayed away for more than a day. I believe the eggs may have got too cold that night she was away, and the babies inside probably froze--or otherwise died wiithout their mother there to keep them warm. Shame that she spent weeks there, only to have it end that way. But amazing that she had the resolve to return after 2 falcon attacks and continue to TRY and hatch the eggs. And more amazing that she escaped with her own life. wt

Jennifer, I like the video. It reminds me of stories my mom, dad , and grandparents use to tell. Times must have really been hard for many years. I remember my dad telling the story of when he was very small, the Arkansas and Mississippi river flooding. The family was taken to what sound like a refuge camp, everyone lived in tents, he said disease was so bad that people were dying like flies. They worked along the Mississippi, or Arkansas river in the cotton fields, and never knew anything but hard work. Dad left home when he was 17. He worked his way to the west coast and back. He could not read or write, and the family did not know if he was alive or dead. He made it back home the day his family heard that he had been killed. He then started to work in the coal mines, when called for the war, he failed his physical, but he said that the miners were not allowed to quit the mines anyway, because the coal was needed for the war effort. Dad left the coal field around Paris AR., and came to the coal fields along the Arkansas, Oklahoma line, that was when he met mom. They knew one another 40+ days before they were married. Dad died of cancer about 15 years later. I don't think mom ever quit loving dad. Mom is buried next to dad, I had a stone made just like the one she picked out for dad, they sit side by side. I can remember mom telling about my grandmother, who was Chickasaw Indian, cooking meals out side, she used a very large rock to set the supplies on, and would build a camp fire by the rock. When I was young, up till I was married and had kids we would go on a large camping trip every summer and granny would do all the cooking. I wondered how she could cook so good on a camp fire, that was when mom told me that use to cook like that all the time. I am sorry, this has not been about gardening, but instead about memories that the video brought back to me. Jennifer, Madge and my neighbor are trying to get me to buy a new tractor. They tell me that I am getting too old to work on that junk, I don't see well and am not very strong, and my tractors range from 20 to 70 years old. I dont know what I will do, but I dont wont to just sit here and dry up, and I cant garden by hand any more.