AR Logo
Volume I, Number 1 (Summer 2006)
ISSN 1934-4324

newslettersmal
Sign up for
The Aroostook Review Newsletter!

To do so, send an e-mail by clicking on the link above with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. Please allow a week for processing.

 

NEW-CUE

NEW-CUE, Inc. is a non-profit, environmental education organization founded primarily to assist writers and educators who are dedicated to  enhancing  the public's awareness of environmental issues.

 

 

 

Sue Hahn

A wild bird lover and imaginative hobby writer and grandmother, Sue Hahn enjoyed this incredible true story.

A Hummingbird Adventure

 


Tiny: A Hummingbird Adventure
After caring for the "Tiny" bird, artist and wildlife woodcarver,
Cherie Fletcher, made these sketches.

A HUMMINGBIRD ADVENTURE

 
While strolling down my country lane,

one sunny, summer day,

I saw what looked to be a locust

just resting in the road.

On closer look I saw instead

a baby hummingbird!

 

Poor little one. He tried to fly

but then gave up...exhausted.

As time dragged by no parent came.

I heard myself declare,

"Little fellow, it's not safe

for me to leave you here!"

 

So, tenderly, I placed him

in my hand and took him home,

Where I sat him in a shoe box

which I carpeted with grass.

Then I added a twig onto which he stepped

and made himself at home.

 

He drank his fill of sugar-water

from a daisy dangling overhead,

Then he let me stroke him with my finger,

getting a little bird massage.

As our unlikely friendship stabilized,

I had the urge to sketch him.

 

So all day long from that trusty twig

he stared at me and I at him.

As I drew his little portrait,

admiring all his wondrous parts--

Mini-wings, needle-beak, microscopic feathers

I said, "I'll call you Tiny!"

 

Our idyllic afternoon sped by

and night began to fall.

A cloth draped over his little room

made it dark so he could sleep

But then I dreaded how he'd last

the night without his mother.

 

 

Never fear. We two slept soundly,

perhaps dreaming of each other.

And at dawning of another day,

I thought I heard a sound.

I did! I heard a faint, weak squeaking!

A "Tiny" call for breakfast!

 

I served more sugar-water

to my hungry little guest,

Then said aloud, "Can this go on

Are you really feeling stronger?

Can I teach you how to fly?"

I said, "You need your mother!"

 

So with Tiny's box in hand,

I returned to where we'd met

And saw a sight I'd missed before.

A Trumpet Vine grown up a tree

Ablaze with bright orange blooms

Surrounded by a dozen hummingbirds!

 

Tiny's family! But how might they

come to claim their little one?

I chose a nearby apple tree

from which he could be seen,

Then secured him, twig and all,

and stepped away to watch.

 

Moments passed and then a bird

zoomed by to greet my little friend.

It squeaked, "Hello" or was it scolding,

"Where have you been?"

Then it darted to and fro to feed him

nectar from the blooms.

 

I sighed in relief and whispered thanks

to this wise, forgiving parent bird.

Then I hurried home with a happy heart

to add iridescent color

To my precious sketch-pad memories

of a "Tiny" bird adventure.

 

 

TOP

 


 

Hosted by

University of Maine at Fort Kent
23 University Drive
Fort Kent, ME 04743


Named a 2007 Best College
in the Northeastern Region
by the Princeton Review
for the second consecutive year.
 

arbutton

Original website content (text, graphics, look & feel)
by The Aroostook Review.
Authors, Photographers & Artists retain the copyright for their work(s) on this website.
Unauthorized reproduction without prior permission is a violation of copyright laws.

 
Background graphics courtesy of

EOS Development

EOS Development.

The Aroostook Review website designed by
Joseph E. Becker