I’ve had several encounters with wildlife this week. On Monday, after getting home from work, I purposefully left the garage door open knowing my wife would be home soon. Since it was approaching dusk, I also decided to leave the garage lights on.

A short time later, I went into the garage to retrieve something when I discovered a female Anna’s hummingbird flying around inside the garage. I knew instantly that this bird was going to need help to get out.

I’ve had this experience with hummingbirds before. When they fly into a home, or into a garage, they tend to fly up to the highest point. Even with the giant garage door wide open, this hummingbird was not going to get out on its own.

I’m sure the hummer initially flew into the garage to check out the red handle dangling from the rope that connects to the latch that releases the door in the event of a power outage. It is an all too familiar scenario. Hummingbirds fly into garages, attracted by the red handle, then suddenly they are at a complete loss on how to get out.

I made several attempts to try and herd it towards the garage door opening, all to no avail. It just flew in circles, with its wings actually touching the ceiling of the garage. It made an interesting sound, like the sound of a large beetle flying against a window or a wall.

At one point, I had the thought to bring one of my hummingbird feeders in from the yard. I hung the feeder from the red handle hoping it would fly down to the feeder where it could then fly directly out the open garage door. No luck.

I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed something like a butterfly net, but I don’t own one. My wife had the thought to call neighbors who have a pool and ask to borrow the pool net.

Unfortunately, the net was attached to a twelve-foot-long pole which made it very difficult to maneuver in the garage as the ceiling height is probably only ten feet high. My ability to move the pole quickly was no match for a speedy hummingbird! She was flying all over the garage, evading my best efforts to get her in the net.

By now it was dark outside. I felt badly, as I was stressing her out, and she was expending a tremendous amount of energy which I felt she would need to get through the cold night. My efforts to catch her went on for a good while—I was certainly getting an aerobic workout!

Finally, I was able to get her into the net. Her tiny body, all 4.4 grams, was so delicate in my hand. I removed her from the net and took her to a juniper tree in the yard and released her. Early the next morning, I checked to see if she was still there, but she was gone, so I’m hoping she made it through the night. My wife took a video of me catching the hummingbird. Check it out on the store’s Facebook page, The Lookout AZ.

Tuesday morning, I discovered a small ornate tree lizard in my city council office at City Hall. I was so surprised, as my office is on the third floor! I couldn’t imagine how a lizard got up to the third floor.

Once again, I found myself trying to catch yet another critter. It was challenging, but I was finally able to catch it and take it outside and release it. Two rescues in two days!

Until next week, Happy Birding!

Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.

This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.

Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.

One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.

There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.

Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.

Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.

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