Arnette Heidcamp

A Hummingbird in My House: The Story of Squeak by Arnette Heidcamp was a cute little story of one winter when the author helped a juvenile hummingbird who was not quite ready to migrate (he hadn’t fattened up enough) winter over in her greenhouse. The book includes many interesting facts and observations about Squeak and several other types of hummingbirds. I would have liked it if the author had waited until the next season to write the book and thus update readers on whether or not Squeak survived his first migration to return to her garden.… (más)

This is a fun little book, just a look at one person's experience housing one ruby-throated hummingbird for one winter, but it is sweet and quite informative. The photographs add to the pleasure. Arnette Heidcamp found Squeak in her yard long after all the other hummingbirds had headed south for the winter and was afraid he would not survive if she did not help him, so she made her sunroom his residence and spent the winter journaling his behavior.

In the spring, she released him and he took off, never to return. That was the hard part for me - not knowing what became of him. But Heidcamp certainly did all she could to give him a chance!… (más)

Lovely little book written by a wildlife rehabber who specializes in the smallest of all birds. At first she just fed hummingbirds in her yard, then began tending to injured ones in her open sunroom. She became known as the lady who ran "Hummingbird 911" and this book describes a number of hummingbirds she cared for overwinter, so they could be released in spring when they were done healing and recuperating. The birds included a nestling found when a tree was cut down, a bird that was found severely injured after colliding with a window, one caught by a cat, and several others found wandering off-course when winter began, weakened without the reserves to migrate successfully. In each case the author describes how she fed and tended to the tiny birds- often having to invent new methods to safely handle them, due to their size. For example, one injured bird that could not preen got its feathers individually dried with a sable paintbrush. Another that needed extra protein (hummingbirds eat a surprising number of small insects such as gnats, whitefly and aphids) got fish food crumbled into its nectar solution. I learned a lot from her book about hummingbirds- their needs, biology, behavior and little quirks. I would like to read her other books especially the first one, because she glossed over a lot of details in this one that I bet were explained more thoroughly earlier- such as how she managed to get such sharply detailed photographs.

There was one interesting passage where she talked about the patterns of hummingbird migration, how certain species were being seen outside their usual area, speculating that they were expanding their range. While she couldn't help assisting the lost and injured hummers, she also wondered about the effects of humans intervention- rescuing the unfit birds where nature would have weeded them out, making the species as a whole stronger.

from the Dogear Diary… (más)