Happy 2008 everybody! I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday! I certainly did and let me just tell you, that as far as Owly goes, this year is going to be absolutely amazing! I’ll be posting more about that as well as my Owly Tour schedule for 2008 soon, But first, I have to tell you about a little birdie that came to visit us!

You may remember “Twitter” from last year, the little Rufous Hummingbird that stayed the winter in our yard, well… we have another little visitor this year. We’re incredibly honored to have a winter hummingbird staying with us so we called our friend, local Hummingbird expert Karen Theodorou from the Georgia Hummingbird Study Group to come out to take a look at her and to band our new little winter guest so that they can track the migration of these little jewels. Well, when she caught our little hummie we were surprised to find that she was already banded… and not only that, but our “new” little Rufous was our own little Twitter!

If you’ve read Owly, Volume 1 you know that Hummies remember flowers year after year and little Twitter remembered us! :) Rufous Hummies are native to the west-coast of North America and Atlanta just experienced some incredibly cold weather so we were worried about her, but it seems they actually breed in Alaska during the Spring so they’re tough little birds. They can actually go into a little hibernation state called “torpor” at night to conserve their energy. Whew!

Karen measured and weighed her and gave her a little drink before placing her gently in my mom’s hand so she could fly away. She didn’t stay but a second but we go some great pictures. I was hoping she’sd stay around longer like the little Caliope Hummie Karen had banded earlier in the day. That little guy had actually closed his little eyes and taken a nap before he took off. :) Anyhoo, Twitter’s really grown though she had lost some weight since last year. We’ll continue to feed her and look after her and we hope she stays until March again this year. Hope you enjoy the pics! Special Thanks to Karen for most of them! ^,^