Isn't that how life goes sometimes!

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Three weeks ago, I found a hummingbird live-cam online - https://www.bellahummingbird.com/.  The same day I found it, the hummingbird mama - Bella - laid her first egg of the season.  And then a second.  

 And I thought, "How cool!  I get to see these babies from the very start."  

 Eager to see the babies hatch, I checked on the live-cam every couple days.  And then, just a few days ago, the first baby hatched, followed shortly by the second.

 Two tiny new baby hummingbirds.  I called my boys over to show them off.  

 I guess this camera has been running since 2013.  It's been going for 6 years, but this is the first time I noticed it.  And I was excited about checking on the baby birds every day, watching them grow.

 What an honor!

 And then yesterday ... three weeks after I started watching the hummingbird live-cam that I missed for the last 6 years ... the mama bird was possibly killed, they suspect by a praying mantis (???), leaving two tiny new hatchlings behind, which were then sent to a place that could care for them.

 How is it that this mama bird and nest are going just fine for 6 years ... but then three weeks after I start watching, delighting in the joy of being able to watch these little wonders grow, the mama gets attacked - possibly killed - by a mantis!?!  Just days after the babies hatch!?!

Seriously!!!  What's that about!?!

 I mean, I'm not saying that I think my watching is what got her killed, but sometimes ... 

 I wonder.

This is why I try to not get too excited about things.  If I do, something as absurd and out-of-the-ordinary as a praying mantis will come and destroy it.

 Poor Bella!  Sorry, Bella!
(To be fair to myself, we did get to watch a mama chickadee raise baby chickadees in a birdhouse in our yard, seen at the end of this post.  And we even got to hold one when it flew out of the nest and crashed into our chicken-wire fence.  And nothing bad happened to them.  

 That I know of.) 


Update 4/4/19: I just checked in on the live cam again, and apparently Bella is back.  According to the camera operator, Bella's a bit beat-up but alive.  And she fixed up the nest and is starting over again, laying two more eggs.  I am glad to hear.  (But I still don't know if I will be watching anymore.)    

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