Hello Tweets -

I had occasion this past Friday to note a female Anna's egg-laying.

Gazing out from a fifth floor waiting room at GroupHealth Capitol Hill,
Seattle, I gleefully discovered an active humming bird nest in a nearby
tree down at third floor level! In the course of five minutes I watched my
feathered attraction return to the same perch three times. My attraction
became suspect of more when I noticed a bit of a knob at the spot of the
perch. A Nest!

It was about 10:50am. Within seven minutes I'd fetched with my binoculars
from my car. I watched her sit a minute or so between a handful of flights.
Another woman in the waiting area enjoyed the show with me. We had a steep
angle of view down to the nest so when vacant it was easy to tell the nest
was empty. In the binoculars the finished nest was a ring of sage green
lichens, a bit of fuzz on one side. She would come and go, and so, after a
while, I just settled into a Sudoku.

Her doctor's appointment complete, I told my friend I had a surprise. She
is a budding birder and has never seen a hummingbird nest. I handed her the
binoculars, instructing where to look. She looked and I looked again - and
even with the naked eye we could see a white spot not seen before in the
nest. Between 11:05 and 11:25 an egg had been laid! A more intimate birding
experience for me, for sure!

I began to wonder about the time of day and all the flying forays in the
forty minutes preceding. Do hummers commonly lay late morning? Could the
prior coming and going in many short trips be more than simply feeding? I
will do some research, but any feedback regarding these issues would be
appreciated.

Greg Pluth

University Place, WA
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