Our yoga kula became foster parents for a short time this spring. 18 inches from the studio window, a hummingbird built her nest. By mid-May, she was spending most of her time there, occasionally building up the sides but mostly waiting patiently.
We watched her from the studio window. On May 16th one egg appeared, on the 17th, a second.
Hummingbirds build their nests in precarious places, toward the ends of camouflaged branches, out of reach of squirrels and blackbirds.
Like overprotective parents, we worried about wind, unseasonably cold weather and construction noise. When the mother left the nest for long periods of time, we worried she might have encountered a predator.
But the nest was solid and secure, and she always returned. On June 8th, we peeked into the nest and found two baby birds, looking more like caterpillars than hummingbirds.
Two days later, with eyes still closed, they poked their short beaks up the side of the nest. Before the week was out, their tiny bodies filled the space.
Every day, their beaks grew longer until, on June 19th, they looked like hummingbirds! We could see that one was larger and darker than the other, allowing us, naturally, to worry about the smaller one! Wad the bigger one hogging all the food from the mom? What if the little one fell out of the nest? They thrived.
We checked on them early Sunday morning, June 25th. They were bursting out of the nest, and after a few days of spreading their wings and moving around, we know our time with them was short. An hour later, one had flown off. We started class in the studio and somewhere between downward dog and tree pose, the smaller one flew off.
We closed class wishing them a safe life and hoping they will come back and visit occasionally.
If it sounds like “Be home for Friday night dinner; we’ll feed you and you can do your laundry,” it was. Being a parent is hard – It’s always about letting go, even when the babies are birds.
