Saving the Wildlife

One day in the spring we were all out enjoying a beautiful day.  (Seriously, one thing that last winter has done is made me just so thankful for warm spring days and green grass and trees!)  Spencer was swinging on the swing set when he notice something stuck in the screen of the patio.  From far away it looking like a big bumblebee but when we got up close we realized it was a sweet little hummingbird.  Somehow it had wedged its beak right through one of the tiny holes of the screen and it was stuck!  He had completely worn himself out.  I didn't want to scare it to death but we figured he was going to die if we left him there for much longer, so I held my hand out and lifted him gently to loosen his beak.  When he came free he was still way too weak to fly.  I sat there with this little bird in my hand and marveled that I was actually holding a bird that is normally almost impossible to get a good close up view of.  

The kids made him a little nest in an old flower basket and we made him some sugar water to see if he could drink any and regain his strength.

We watched him for awhile but had to leave for the school book fair.  We decided that if he was still there when we came home that we would take him to the nature center where they might have a better idea how to take care of a hummingbird.  But when we came home he was gone.  We sure hope he got his wings going and flew away.  There was no sign of him anywhere on the ground so we opted to believe in the happy ending!