Mid morning I took a break from sculpting and was headed outside to water plants when I heard an unmistakable sound. The frantic whirring of either a huge moth or a hummingbird. I couldn't see it, but knew where it was coming from. Following the sound, I caught a glimpse of a tiny hummer trying frantically to get through the glass and back outside. It had apparently followed the light upwards to a window in the staircase landing about 14 ft from the floor. Fetching a ladder and hoping the poor little bird wouldn't fly out into the open room where I would never be able to rescue it, I climbed up. When I got to where I could see it, it had collapsed into the corner of the window with its little beak pointed up wings spread and completely still. It was just a baby. I thought it had fatally injured itself. I reached over the bookcase and gently picked it up, still motionless. I told Larry it was dead and climbed down thinking I would bury it. I walked outside and noticed its tiny little feet were stuck together with ....poo. I tried to release its legs and clean them before burying it. To my surprise, it suddenly just zipped out of my hand and flew away into the nearby tree. This in iself was a surprise considering the amount of tiny irredescent feathers it had lost in its battle with the window. Had I known it was still alive, I would have taken a picture, but taking a picture of the poor little (dead) bird was the last thing on my mind at the time. I went from sad to happy to worried, praying that the little creature would make it.
My guess is that the little fellow was attracted to the red glassware clearly visible from the patio door. Realizing they weren't a source of yummy, he flew upward to the bright light from the window in the stairwell.
