Images by John 'K'

“Oh @#$%!! How do I get out of here?!”, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

Reviewing some photos for a different project, I stumbled upon this one from 2009, and thought I’d share the story to brighten up an otherwise dull winter day…

This was the middle of Summer, and I was home alone doing some work in the yard while my wife was off volunteering at a summer camp and my kids were out. I’d been in and out of the screen door during the day as I worked on stuff out back…

Well at some stage this little devil slipped in through the screen door while it was open. I have no idea when it did so, but I spotted it as it was flitting around our skylights trying to get out (as you can see they have screens on them so there’s no way out up there). Try as I might, I couldn’t coax the little fellow to fly down and out of the door it came in through on its own, and it was getting more and more exhausted trying to get out through the screened skylight.

In the end I had up go up on our balcony (yes we have an indoor balcony) below the skylight, and climb up on a chair so I could reach it. Every time I tried to grab it, it’d fly away from me towards the side of the skylight I couldn’t reach, so ever resourceful I grabbed a broom and tried to coax it back towards me.

Each time I managed to get the bird close enough that I could reach it, I’d put the broom down to use both hands to grab the little bird, and it would seize the moment and fly back to the far end of the skylight.

This game of tag went on for 15 minutes or so, and with every round the bird was getting more and more exhausted.

Eventually the poor little thing gave up and just sat in the closer corner of the skylight, totally exhausted. It was so worn out by this stage, it just sat still as I carefully put my hands around it, and I then proceeded to carry it outside and put it on its favorite feeder, where it drank long and hard before flying off.

I learned my lesson from that and made sure I always closed the screen door as I continued my work.

The following day as I continued the project, I came in for some stuff, closing the screen door behind me. Walking back to it a few minutes later, I was met by the sight of the same hummingbird, beak stuck in the mesh of the screen door desperately trying to free itself!!! Thankfully that rescue was a lot simpler and quicker. Hummingbirds may be pretty to look at but they are bloody stupid at times! 🙂

This was taken fairly early on in the encounter as I was working out whether I’d be able to convince it to make its own way back out… later on it was a 2-handed operation and as I was the only one at home when this happened there are no pictures of me holding the little thing after I rescued it. I could have stopped and grabbed a camera and shot myself holding the little bird but the poor thing was traumatized enough without me taking further advantage of the situation.

On a positive note, the same bird gave me plenty of opportunities to photograph it in our garden in the weeks that followed. Perhaps that was its way of saying “Thank You”. 🙂

(You can see some of my other hummingbird shots, including more of this character, here.)