CLIFFORD – Ray and Melanie Leith of Clifford and their three children welcomed a new baby into their home on July 27 – one with wings.
While playing outdoors, Chayse Leith discovered a tiny winged creature on his driveway. He carried it into the house to show his grandma.
With a squeal of fright, she exclaimed, “Get that bat out of here.’ She was then reassured to find out it was a baby hummingbird.
Zachary, Hunter, and Chayse Leith helped put it into a bird cage. Melanie Leith filled an eye dropper with a mixture of sugar water. She also tried to catch and mash fruit flies to feed to the baby bird because it needed protein to live. She reached into the cage and set the bird in her hand.
Soon the baby found the courage to sit on her finger and open its beak and take a droplet of fluid.
Melanie Leith consulted a friend in Milverton and was relieved to find there is a baby hummingbird protein formula that could truly help the baby bird survive. A quick drive to her friend’s, a consultation, a bird book and formula in hand, she was well on her way to saving a life.
It is a glorious sight to watch a defenceless bird perch atop a finger and chirp to be fed by an eye dropper filled with nourishment. It is almost surreal to watch as it stretched out its tongue, opened its long beak, ruffled its feathers, or scratched its sides. The baby, dubbed Hummee, was tiny.
At one point, he decided to test his strength and flew to the top of the cabinet.
Within a week, Hummee was strong enough to fly back to his nest in the big maple tree on the Leith front lawn. The family hopes Hummee returns often to feast on the fluid in the hummingbird feeders on their front windows.
