Some Visitors at Work

April 14 - 28, 2020 Part Three

While working in the feed shed we were visited several times by some very cute martens.  The first time a little guy came in from the outside through the large garage door and he came in sniffing around.  Every so often he would freeze and look at us, and then carry on sniffing around.  He jumped up onto the rim of the garbage can, which was probably my fault for throwing an apple core inside, otherwise there would have been no food in it at all.  He was very good at balancing on the rim of the can and then hanging off of his hind legs while rummaging around with his front legs.  When he was walking around on the ground he looked like a cross between a kitten and a bear cub, and he was very cute.  

Another day I was up on one of the four corner second-floor areas.  There were two stacks of pallets in the middle of the area and I kept hearing a grunting noise.  Then when I was only about two feet away from the pallets, crouched down and painting, a little head stuck out at me from between the pallets.  

He looked at me for a while and then pulled his head back under, a few moments later and he popped his head back out to say hi.  He kept checking me out for the whole time I was up there, and boy what a cute little face he had.  

The next day there were two martens at work with us.  They were using some of the wire runs that hang down from the ceiling in a conduit as a highway, and getting around very nimbly.  

There was one area where they would go from the wire runs on the ceiling, across a gap of several inches, 90 degrees downward about 8” and then straight back up about 10” and into a hole up into the attic.  

It was quite the feat of agility and very impressive. Some of them seemed more curious than others, and some would often stop and watch us for a while before moving on.  It was nice to have them there to keep us company.   

Unfortunately we were also visited in the feed shed by several humming birds.  I say unfortunately because they struggled to find their way out.  Once inside, all they wanted to do was fly up and along the ceiling and they seemed to find it very hard to fly down to the height of the open garage door, and back outside.  When the first one came inside it seemed as though it was flying upwards towards the lights, so we opened both garage doors, turned off all of the lights, and also put bright objects like an orange hardhat, a bright red fire-extinguisher, and some yellow caution tape down by the exits hoping that it would come down thinking they were flowers, and then find its way out.  When we came back after lunch we no longer saw the humming bird and we believed that it had gotten out.  Unfortunately a couple of days later we found its little body in a corner, poor little guy.  

The second humming bird to come inside has a better ending to the story.  This one was a female, and she, like the first one, could not find her way out.  She kept flying up against the ceiling and then landing before flying around again.  

We once again tried all of our tricks, but they did not work.  After awhile a second humming bird came flying in.  My first thought was, “Oh no, not another one”, but I was wrong.  This one was a male and he was chirping away, constantly talking.  He flew over to the female and landed beside her, talking to her.  Then he took off, flew down and out the garage door.  Jason and I watched the female, hoping that she would follow him, but unfortunately she did not, and she took off again and flew along the ceiling.  

A little later and we heard the male come back inside chirping away.  This time he flew over to her and did a little dance, flying around her in a circle and flitting this way and that, and then he once again flew down and outside.  Once again the female did not get it and she flew around at the ceiling height.  

A third time the male came in talking to the female and once again we watched their interaction.  This time, after a talk, the male once again flew down and out, and then amazingly the female followed him and flew down and out the door.  Yay!  What a happy ending, and what an amazing interaction.  It was very neat to see.