Female ruby-throated hummingbird, copyright Janet Furlong. To see more of Janet’s gorgeous nature photography click here.
I think the best part of a day can be the briefest of events. Small moments containing interesting thoughts, snippets of conversation, quick glimpses of landscape, encounters with the natural world.
Watching a hummingbird at work or play can be a brief encounter, the memory of which will follow me all day. I don’t have a hummingbird feeder but I have a butterfly bush right by the deck. Hummers don’t visit it as often as they will a nectar feeder but I do get entertained.
One morning I was standing on the deck sending a gentle spray of water from the hose onto my Franklinia tree. Branches from a huge winter jasmine bush were between me and the tree and so all a little hummer spotted was the water spray which sparkled and flashed in the sunlight. She flew in and sat on a branch not a foot from me and proceeded to have her morning shower. Never have I been so awestruck. I tried not to move the spray so that it would just be a gentle splash on her. She preened and fluttered her wings and shook herself and had a wonderful time in that little shower bath from the watering hose, never knowing that I was holding it for her.
Or maybe she did…..Perhaps I was her amusing encounter for the day.