Lily Day 8

The wind is blowing like crazy right now and I’m going to picture Lily snug on her nest, keeping that egg safe and warm.

It’s been raining and the wind blowing on and off all night. Just had a break in the rain and went out to check Lily’s nest. She wasn’t there but the nest was still secure with the one egg in it.

I almost didn’t post this because it’s a such a bad photo but I wanted to let people know that Lily laid her second egg sometime after 10am this morning and before 7pm tonight. It has been pouring rain and this was the best I could get with holding my non-waterproof camera and an umbrella in the rain.

Lily Day 7

I took 97 photographs of Lily, the mama hummingbird, today. More than half of them with her in the same position, me trying various settings, just click, click, clicking away like a mama with her newborn baby. Happy day.

The nest has come a long way from when she first started building it.

But so far, still just one egg.

Look at how tiny the egg and the nest are, compared to my thumb!

Most of the time when I’ve gone outside today Lily has just been sitting pretty on her nest.

I can’t resist taking tons of pictures of her even though they all look pretty much the same. It’s good practice for me. Lily is making me a better photographer.

Lily is still working on her nest. I went out to check on her this morning and there is still just one egg. As I was leaving, she came back to the nest and I was able to catch just one pic before she took off again. You can see the dainty piece of a dandelion seed in her beak. She tucked it into the nest and then took off again. Perhaps she’ll lay another egg later today.

Lily Day 6 – First Egg!

Lily spent lots of time sitting in her nest today.  First facing one way.

Then the other way.

And then, when I went out to check on her at around 2pm, she was out of the nest. But look what I found!

Lily’s first egg! From research I know they usually lay two eggs so now I’ll keep watching for the second one. Eggs usually hatch in 14-19 days so the earliest I should except to see a baby would be 4/22.

Lily Day 5

I’m lucky, I know, to have this nest right in my backyard. I go out many times throughout the day to see her sitting on her nest, staring at me. Sometimes she just stays there and sometimes, as though she knows I mean no harm, she flies off to the plum tree behind the fence or the wires overhead to scratch and stretch and enjoy the sun. She’s giving this new photographer a lot of chances to practice.

She’s been in and out of the nest today. No eggs yet but she’s done some improvements to the nest. It amazes me that she has built it in this little Toyon that is only about 6 feet tall and is rather spindly.

Lily Day 4 – Adding to the nest

I know this isn’t the best photo (I’m a new photographer) but Lily just came back to her nest with a mouth full of fluffy shimmery white stuff. Looks like fiberfill. She wouldn’t work on the nest while I was watching.

I turned away for a few minutes and she was done. Just a thread left hanging.

It looks like she’s added a top rim with the fluffy stuff.

After all that nest building she flew off to the tree behind her nest.

I held my arms up for a really long time waiting for her to turn her head so I could get a good shot. I’m going to have to start some arm workouts to be a better photographer.

One of my favorite shots of her, so far.

Lily Day 3 – Continuing to Build the Nest

Lily continues to add to her nest.

At around 10am it looked like this. An improvement over yesterday.

By 2pm it looked like this. Not a bad day’s work for this tiny bird.

The nest is in a Toyon bush. The leaf at the base of the nest is about 2 inches long.

I was able to get between the bush and the fence and get this shot looking down into the nest. No eggs yet but it’s starting to look a bit more comfy.

I can’t wait for the eggs!

Lily, Day 2 The Nest, the Early Days

This is the first sighting of Lily’s nest. It sure doesn’t look like much yet. I do wonder if those feathers are from her or did she find them somewhere?

Meet Lily

Meet Lily. She is an Anna’s hummingbird who decided to build a nest in our backyard. Lucky us, right?

Since we converted our yard to a wildlife habitat (front and back) it is really exciting to see our hard work has paid off. We had already seen a dramatic increase in bird activity in the yard (especially once we put in the water features) but I hadn’t yet hoped for a nest. I thought we would have to wait until we had big, tall trees, the kind with branches so dense that when you looked up, you couldn’t see the sky.

Boy was I wrong. For her new (albeit temporary) home, Lily chose a a small Toyon bush that is barely six feet tall.

It’s a spindly looking bush and to look at it, you wouldn’t think of it as a safe space for such a tiny bird to build her tiny nest where she planned to lay her tiny eggs but you know what? That Lily, she is a smart bird. I confess, I didn’t find the nest first though I like to believe I would have found it in another day or two because I am out in the yard several times a day and the Toyon is right next to the path which is right next to the water feature. But I didn’t find it first. I had some friends over visiting the native garden and one of them came down the path and spotted the nest. Since then I’ve become obsessed with documenting Lily’s time in the garden and am out there taking pictures many times a day.

Lily is being very kind about indulging me.