A bird in the hand…
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

Joe Kelly of Howell holds a hummingbird he pulled out of the vinyl siding of his home. Kelly said he and his wife, Jean, have been putting up hummingbird feeders for 20 years and said the rescue is the first time anything like this has ever happened.

HOWELL - Catching and holding onto a hummingbird would probably have to rank as one of nature's most challenging feats, but Joe Kelly of Howell managed to do just that recently.

When a small female ruby-throated hummingbird got caught in the vinyl siding of Kelly's home, Kelly was able to pluck the creature out of the siding and clean off some cobwebs from her wings, face and beak.

According to Kelly, the bird was a young female who seemed to be in distress when he pulled her away from the siding. He said the bird trusted him and perched on his hands after her ordeal.

Kelly said he and his wife, Jean, have been putting up hummingbird feeders for 20 years and said the rescue is the first time anything like this has ever happened.

Although he does not own any pets, Kelly said he loves animals.

"It was a one in a million shot, a fluke, and I was just happy to help her," he said of his assistance to the hummingbird.

Kelly said the bird is still flying around in his yard with her parents. He said she just started to fly forward after several days of flying backward.

Craig Tufts, chief naturalist of the National Wildlife Federation, said, "It is very rare to catch a hummingbird." He said these birds "usually visit flowers for nectar, bird feeders and probe insects for food. They have a high potential to get caught in places where they cannot get out."

According to Tufts, hummingbirds embody a trait that only few birds have. They can fly backward and he said it is not an unusual thing to see.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Internet Web site, "Each spring, ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only hummingbirds found east of the Mississippi River, move northward from their winter range in Central America and South America. They do not migrate in groups and they look for backyards, parks or gardens they can stake out as their own."

As fall approaches and the number of flowers decrease, the tiny creatures will head south.

Kelly does not anticipate seeing the bird again.

However, according to the Internet Web site www.learner.org, hummingbirds are very intelligent and are able to remember places and people from one year to the next.