Hummingbird Alert!

"You've got to come down to the dining room!" Joan called up to me. "I can see a hummingbird building a nest!"

Indeed, in the lower branches of an ornamental pear tree, perhaps 12 feet off the ground and 15 feet from our dining room window, construction was in progress.

The construction zone.

All photos were taken through glass.

The nest builder, with a thin strand of spider silk, barely visible, attached to the tip of her tail (click on the image to enlarge).

She appears to be sitting calmly on the nest in this photo, but she's constantly squiggling, smoothing the interior contours of the new home.

Sometimes flapping is required.

A nearby squirrel was not impressed,

but Joan and I are enamored with our new neighbor, and with the prospect of observing a hummingbird family over the next month. Our binoculars will not gather dust, and the next hummingbird post is here.