Hummingbird Rescue

Pretty much the only people who read this blog are the other people who went to Maine with me and can already tell what this post will be about, but I'm going to share anyway. I was in Maine this past weekend, catching up with some awesome Drew people, and we had a bit of an adventure. Cori had just climbed into the kayak with me against my will when we heard the people hanging out on the docked boat scream something about finding a huge bug in the water. We paddled back and it turned out that they had fished a tiny, very wet hummingbird out of the water. Lucky for us Cori spent 6 months as an intern at a wildlife rehabilitation center, and she jumped out to save the day. She wasn't very optimistic, because we didn't know how long the hummingbird had been in the water (let alone how it got there), and the metabolism of a hummingbird is so high that they pretty much need to eat constantly. We gave it a shot though, and tried to dry off the tiny wet hummingbird.
As you can see, he is tiny and adorable. And in this picture, quite wet. He could also be a she, for all I know. Cori said he looked nearly full-grown, but I think he was a young bird. First, once we dried him off a bit and he got over what must have been the very shocking experience of being in the lake, he starting making these high-pitched squeaks that sounded a lot like begging calls. When we started feeding him, he also opened his long beak wide while squeaking, just like other baby birds. I'm not a hummingbird expert, though, so who knows.

At first we thought feeding him might be a problem, because we didn't have a syringe, but I suggested we use a straw and cover the opening so that the suction would keep the sugar water in. (Who knew something I used to do to entertain myself while waiting for my food at restaurants would come in handy?) Once he had eaten a lot and seemed to be out of crisis, Cori set up a little box for him complete with a twig for a perch.


We named him Flit, after the hummingbird in Pocahontas. We fed him for the rest of that day and tried to release him, but he flew away kind of awkwardly and then sat on a bush looking confused. We kept him overnight, and the next day got ready to release him. We thought at first it might not work, because he kept sitting by the house and peeping. He even tried to fly back in at one point. However, eventually he flew away. I hope he's alright. I'm a little worried, because he didn't seem like a very strong flier, and if he's young he might not have all the skills he needs to survive. But we can't have a pet hummingbird that needs to be fed every hour, and at the very least we saved him from drowning in a lake. All in all, a good deed.

(That's me looking way too excited about Flit sitting on my hand. He loved me, and I loved him. The end.)