Things have been kinda wild lately, in our own backyard. So I have been learning new things!
A month ago we had the trees trimmed. One of the trimmers came to me with a twig with a nest and a baby hummingbird still in it! He said they found it in the pile of cuttings, and wanted to know if I knew what to do. Carefully, we put it into a protected spot in the tree, and I secured the twig with some string.
Then I went and looked for advice on the internet. I got in contact with a specialist and we spoke on the phone. She told me that the mother would come back and find the baby. The baby would call every few minutes to let her know where it was. They instructed me to watch with binoculars for 40 minutes to see if the mother showed up. And because the visit may be only a few seconds, I had to not take my eyes off the nest until I saw the mother. She showed up after about 30 minutes.
This photo was taken about a week later. As you can see, the baby had almost outgrown the nest. Not long after she took her first flight. (Since she is not brightly colored, I think she is a girl.) Fledgling hummingbirds leave the nest, but cannot fly very far at first. The fledgling hides in bushes after short flights. The mother finds it to feed it, and then teaches it the lessons it needs to survive as it also improves its flying skills.Sometimes I would be out back and hear her calls to her mom. I was picking some tangerines and she must have been in the tree. Suddenly she burst past me and flew over to another bush. I haven't heard the calls lately, but I think I spotted her today. Who knows. I hope she sticks around.
Then last Saturday, the dogs tangled with an opossum. After getting them out of the backyard, it was lying there as if it were dead. I didn't want to touch it. So I went inside, consulted the internet and read that it was probably faking. Sure enough, I went outside to check, and the possum was gone. But I heard some strange noises, like tiny sneezes.
I found a baby possum on the ground near the garage. It was partially hidden by a board, so I left it and consulted the internet again. I wanted to make sure it was a possum and not a rat. Apparently, that funny huffing noise which seemed like tiny sneezes is all the sounds they make. I called the humane society and found out that possums are not like hummingbirds. Mother opossums do not come back for babies that have dropped off them! I was going to have to bring it in for rescue.
But I remembered I had heard the funny huffing noise in another area of the yard. So I fixed up a shoebox and used an oven mitt to pick up the baby and put it in the box. But even though I looked all over, I couldn't find the other baby. It had stopped making the noise, and I wasn't exactly sure where it came from.
So, I let the dogs into the backyard, held the box with the baby possum down where they could see and sniff it. I told them there was another one and I needed them to find it for me. I expected my beagle, Sebastian to find it and bark at me to let me know where it was. I was following him when my other dog, Phoebe came to me with the baby possum in her mouth! I told her to put it down, and she did. It was unharmed! I picked it up and put it in the box with the other possum baby. Phoebe got lots of praise for being such a good and clever dog.
I took a few photos of the baby possums. They really are cute. Look at that face! They do not carry rabies and help gardens by eating snails. They also kill and eat vermin. Well, the adults do. They are marsupials; related to koala bears and kangaroos, not rats. I put the box on a heated pad and took them to the Humane Society in Pasadena. They have a whole possum rescue program where volunteers raise the babies. Later they go into a habitat to learn how to survive, and then they are released into the wild.
I got home and was cleaning up in the backyard when I heard that huffing noise again! Oh no. I asked at the humane society how many babies are in a litter, and I was told, as many as fifteen! Phoebe couldn't even find this one. I finally saw it, on the other side of the back fence in our neighbor's yard. So I fixed up another box and went around the block to get it.
They weren't home, so I knocked on the door of the people who lived next door. When I told the guy what I was there for he said "Oh, we have one, too." Then he took me into his backyard, and on the ground was another baby possum. He picked it up and put it into the box, then he hopped the fence, and found the one I had seen. I have attached a photo of the two of them cuddled together. I noticed that they seemed sickly when I first picked them up, but once they got warm, they were very lively (and hard to photograph.} I made another drive to Pasadena. They were going to keep all four siblings together. I hope they do well.
Every time I go into the back yard now I am so aware of the sounds of the birds and the other animals. Who knew we had so much wildlife in LA?
Well, hope you like the stories and enjoy the photos. And if you come across a baby hummingbird or possum, now you know what to do.
