Dailies

Roses; best viewed in the largest sizes; I was actually quite pleased with the dof I managed to get in this shot.

Thanks for your nice comments on my shot of the poppy. I had a sad experience today. Late this afternoon my grandson and I were out in the garden and I saw a hummingbird sitting on a tiny branch about one foot off the ground. It seemed so unusual I told Duncan to look. He did and he said, "What about the hummer on the ground." There was a tiny rubythroat lying beak down in some dead grass. He looked almost dead. He moved a little trying to extract himself, so I very carefully picked him up. He was lying flat, barely breathing. I held him on my hand for over an hour and he gradually improved: held his head up and moved it around, opened his beak and stuck out his tongue, swallowed a lot, flapped his wings, and stood a bit on my hand. All through this, his eyes were either shut or just barely open. After about an hour, I noticed him starting to tremble. I had tried to get him to eat some sugar water or sip from a petunia I brought to him, but he did not seem to realize what it was. I even put a little bit of it on the tip of my finger and held it to his beak, but he would not drink. I was afraid he was going into shock. I decided to put him in a box that was dark with a soft cloth in the bottom. I checked him several times and he was just sitting there with his eyes closed. After about another hour, I lifted the lid and, as I did, he fell over dead. I was so sad. We had tried to locate a hummingbird rescue person in the area but there don't seem to be any in Colorado Springs. I talked to a person from a rescue org in Ellicott and she said to just do what I was doing, but she wasn't optimistic unless we could get him to eat. I had a little dropper, but he wouldn't take anything from it either. I'm so sad that we were unable to help this beautiful little creature.

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