What nature gives, nature can take away. Or at least replace.
Two years ago, I spent time at The Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano photographing an abundance of hummingbirds. During the spring mating season in 2010, employees found 15 hummingbird nests on about a half-acre of their property.
"We check on them every day," garden-shop manager Lisa Meyer said in 2010. "They're like our babies."
This year when they went to check, they found only eight nests.
The reduction could be for a variety of reasons, according to Monique Rea, who rescues hummingbirds at the Pacific Wildlife Project in Laguna Niguel. There could be a change in the flowers or water or the food source – or they could have finished nesting, she says.
Only the hummingbirds really know.
Click through the photo slideshow to learn about hummingbirds and possibilities for the change in the number of nests.