I was taking a walk in the Spring several years ago, and saw a young sparrow in a large parking lot. It obviously could not quite fly, but was trying and could only fly at about knee high.

I stopped and talked to it, and it peeped at me several times, and proceeded to follow me home, about 4 blocks, flying ahead of me, then waiting and peeping at me. I thought this was so cute, that it had bonded with me, but forgot about the neighborhood cats.

Whitey, my neighbor's cat, appeared out of nowhere like lightning, snatched my new buddy and ran off with the poor bird screeching and peeping. I figured Whitey wasn't really hungry, being a spoiled cat, and was just giving in to the hunting instinct, so I tried to run him down and save the little bird, but Whitey must have thought I wanted to steal his dinner (I did), and ran where I could not get to him. I don't know the fate of the little sparrow, but I always felt badly that I led him to an early demise. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

There are many hummingbirds in the Rockies south of Denver, and it is amazing to see 5 or 6 of them buzzing around the feeders you see everywhere. Incredible birds, and very friendly.

Beautiful image, Maya.

Dale

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll