I Celebrated Too Soon

My previous post trumpeted the arrival of one of the two chicks  in the backyard hummingbird nest. As expected the second chick hatched the day after.

Today though when I got home from a trip to the office, repeated looks at the nest revealed no mother, and macro shots snapped of the nest’s interior were mysteriously inconclusive as to the presence of any baby birds.

A search of the ground revealed a small clump of feathers embedded in which seemed to be some bird poop, but on closer inspection it was both dead chicks, pictured below next to a large section of the paper-thin shell I’d found yesterday (you can make out the beak of the one in the foreground).

There is much sadness at Hummingbird East tonight, tempered only slightly with the frail hope that perhaps momma cleaned house because there might be more eggs to come.

On a positive note, the two chicks of Hummingbird West are growing strong.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."