The Bun Family

Something incredible has happened in the short two weeks since I posted about the hummingbird family that lives in our courtyard, [[ The Paddleboat Family. ]]

See, a tiny, seemingly unfinished nest had been sitting in one of the trees closest to the entrance to the courtyard for as long as the Paddleboats had lived there, and we assumed that it was an abandoned first try. Their nest is deeper and carefully maintained – Ms. Paddleboat clearly shored it up when she returned to it this year.

Martha and I were practicing proper social distancing as I reluctantly skipped my usual Saturday morning Taiji class. It was a highlight of stuck-at-home time: we sat by the sunny window with the two most recent New Yorkers, and some extra-good coffee (Thanks Saebom for the vastly improved pourover technique.). To further set the scene, we were listening to ambient music about Tea that I learned about via a Twitter friend who has very good bird content and a Jekyll blog. When I explained all this to Martha she referred to the whole situation as “peak Ním.”

Suddenly this peaceful domestic scene was interrupted by a “thwack” on the window. I was instantly alarmed – it sounded roughly hummingbird-sized!

However, when we peered out the window we were greeted not by tiny carnage but by Martha’s bff and her husband – Kirsty and Joe! They were on a socially-distant visit!

We had a lovely time talking to them. Then Kirsty said “Did you see the hummingbird’s nest!”

And we were all like “Yeah, duh, we’ve blogged about them.”

But no! She didn’t mean the Paddleboats’ nest – she meant the other nest. It was not abandoned at all, and atop it sat another mother hummingbird! Smaller and with green iridescent feathers – definitely not one of the Paddleboats!

Kirsty got a picture with her phone:

We couldn’t believe it! (Also this picture is sideways but it’s kinda better that way.)

Later we went out with my telephoto lens and got a few closeups to confirm she wasn’t a Paddleboat.

She seems to be doing very well out there. She’s on her nest almost every time we leave the house (only for socially-distant walks) and rides out the weirdly high winds we’ve had recently with unruffled grace.

We named her Ms. Bao Bun. Because she is a little afternoon treat.

Here is a bonus picture of Martha with a Bao.