Sitting by the backyard window yesterday afternoon,
I saw the female hummingbird land on some high twigs a number of times.
Another hummer came into sight at a lower level
and a third pushing out of the plants on the ground and falling back ..
It looked like the hum family was trying to fledge and
in a rather clumsy way, at least the kids ...
One young did quite well with just 3 tries of rising and landing higher
each time
but the other kept bumping into the fence and plants and
falling back to the ground;
Finally it rose on an unknown current all the way
to the top of the neighbor's garage and
tried to figure from there what to do next.
The adult flew to the back of the yard and the newest flyer moved in that
direction.
As the adult was always nearby, I tried to figure if she was giving
directions but
could not hear any sound ...
Both young had blank looks in their eyes (maybe terrified?), not
"directional" (?) like the adult.
And it seemed she did something to encourage/instruct them!?
Or was everything genetically determined or accidentally learned or???
Sandy Petersen
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