Donna and I always sleep in the same place — our bed. Our dog Schatzi prefers our bed, but sometimes sleeps in her own furry sleeping bag on the floor near our bed.
Our cat Chewy is more eclectic in her sleepytime choices: nestled back among the shoes in our closet, in her cat bed on top of Donna’s dresser, in bed with us (when the dog isn’t there), in the bathroom sink. I think she has a troubled soul.
When we first started observing our hummingbird, she was always on her nest after dark. But since the chicks hatched, she spends her nights somewhere else. The chicks are there, of course, and the mother comes around during the day to feed them, but she doesn’t sleep with them. I guess it would be pretty uncomfortable trying to share a nest with two growing and restless chicks, come to think of it, so this is probably a normal aspect of hummingbird motherhood.
When the chicks first hatched they had short orange beaks (click for photo). I suppose that makes sense, since they would have needed their beaks to break out of their shells. Logically, they wouldn’t start to grow proper hummingbird beaks until after they were hatched. That seems to be the case — you can see in this photo how their beaks are turning black and getting visibly longer. They also have long narrow black tongues, which they occasionally stick out like anteaters. I think I heard them peeping yesterday, which gave me a chuckle — I only recently learned that hummingbirds chirp, like any other bird.
I’m continuing to load larger hummingbird photos to my Flickr photostream, by the way, and you can view them there.