I visited Governor Bridge Natural Area this evening, hoping to apply some "where to look for warblers" advice several group members here gave me this morning and specific to that site. Thank you for that.
I've been impressed by the spider webs I've seen at GBNA. They can be huge and can block some wide footpaths even with a few yards between the tree branches that provide their support.
I've also been impressed by the spider webs I haven't seen at GBNA. They can take a lot of effort to pull them fully off me after I've walked through them, an unwanted, invisible surprise in the face. Those spiders are diligent and rebuild them fast. One can encounter a new web an hour after encountering one.
After pulling a surprise web off myself 30 min before dusk, I ventured to the big pond to see if I could add to my list of 5 warbler species seen in the previous hour. Near a picnic table along the path on the NW side of the pond, I heard a rustle just behind me, coming from the ground where I just walked. I turned around to see a foot-long, little, brown snake slither into the tall vegetation on the side of the path. Probably it was a water snake. Neat.
The path through the woods toward the parking lot was blocked by a downed tree, so I backtracked along the pond.
As I passed the picnic table again, but slightly before I reached where I had seen the snake, I heard a soft "mew" sound repeated from the vegetation side of the path. Each note lasted for about a half second and went up slightly in pitch from beginning to end, like a subtle question. A second or two passed between the mew notes. I didn't know what it was. It didn't have the usual power of a bird call.
Before I could pinpoint where exactly the mewing was coming from, I got distracted. I saw a hummingbird hovering 5 yards back in the vegetation at eye level. I don't see hummingbirds in microhabitats besides bright red sugar-water feeders very often, so this was worth spending a few minutes to watch. Binoculars to the eyes.
The hummingbird stayed in its position in the time it took to focus on it. How nice of it! But its wings were not moving at all. I could see both plainly, stretched out to each side. In fact, it might be the first time I've seen hummingbird wings stationary and extended. Then it flapped (buzzed) one wing for a couple seconds and stopped. The other wing didn't move. The bird hardly moved, but seemed to oscillate a little bit in its position. "Mew."
Oh no, it's stuck in a spider web!
The entire bird, except for its left wing, was stuck in the web. Its head was up, and its belly was approximately facing me. Its right wing was extended and stuck. It could not retract or flap it. Its tail was pulled 40-50 deg to the right side. Its left wing was free. It could move its head and look around. I watched it struggle for a minute or so, flapping its left wing at full frequency several times. It made no progress. "Mew."
I was stunned. With a beak like that, and with such a rapid wing-flapping capability, a spider web could keep a hummingbird from freeing itself? "Mew."
It was a rather densely woven spider web. I'll give the hummingbird that much credit.
It was 5 yards, maybe 10 steps, to the bird through thick vegetation as tall as me. I looked down, and I couldn't see any of the ground I'd be stepping on if I intervened to free the bird. I also wouldn't be able to see any snakes or other critters that might be there. There was, at the least, a juvy water snake in there somewhere.
Should I intervene with such an odd-seeming natural event? The bird was still stretched out and struggling with one free wing. "Mew."
I decided to intervene. I took 4 steps forward and stopped. Some of the vegetation had thorny branches that caught onto my shirt. I ripped the branch off my shirt like course velcro, and looked at the hummingbird. It froze. No more "mew." In fact, I wasn't sure I could see it now. I backed out to the path and looked again from a different angle. It was still there, silent and motionless. Probably it noticed me and doesn't want to be found.
I walked back into the vegetation, took about 8 steps, stopped, and ripped off more thorny branches from my shirt. I was still about a yard from being able to reach the web and bird, but I realized I could use the next branch in my way to gently remove the support strands from the web. I pushed the branch forward and used it to slowly pop off the rightmost two support strands. The third went with it, and in fact the web mostly collapsed into just a twisted bundle of a few vertical strands. The bird spun for a turn and back and was just hanging as though it was caught in a vertical thread, not still stretched out laterally. It flapped its left wing at full frequency, certainly now terrified of my presence and its changing situation, but its right wing and part of the body were still stuck in the web.
I decided that I would take the last two steps to reach it, put one hand under the bird, and grab the last bundle of support strands with the other. I could then gently lower the bird into my hand so it could right itself. Then I could see if it needed any help freeing its other wing, or maybe it would just fly away on its own at that point. Hopefully it wouldn't try to fly away with just one working wing and spiral down into the vegetation.
I plucked the bundle of vertical web strands, and before I could do anything else, I heard a buzz and saw the bird fly level, quickly, and deliberately, straight away from me, and out of sight after a few seconds. I was surprised. I didn't think the rescue would be over quite that fast. But it succeeded. I brushed the web off my hand and onto the vegetation, and was happy to walk back to vegetation less tall than my shoes.
This rescue left me with a few questions:
I can understand how a light hummingbird could fly into spider web and be halted by it and have its wings stuck in place by it. But is a hummingbird beak far less useful for breaking web strands one-at-a-time than one would expect? Or is it just too hard for a hummingbird to figure out what to do? Or is the first instinctive measure - struggling with wing flapping - just too tiring when the wings can't flap properly or when they are extended uncomfortably (like a human losing circulation in an arm)?
Do hummingbirds die often due to predation while stuck in spider webs?
What would a spider do with a stuck hummingbird? Would a spider hurt, bite, or wrap a hummingbird trapped in its web, or just abandon the web?
If a juvenile hummingbird got caught in a spider web and called to have its parents come to its rescue, what would they do? Hopefully not a mass suicide event.
As far as the free-flying birdwatching went, I found 5 warbler and 1 vireo species, and got great looks at a YB cuckoo.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11569214
Tim Reichard
Central MD
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