Friday, September 23, 2011


A color plate illustration from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1899), showing a variety of hummingbirds.

My season of hummingbirds is almost over. Tonight a pair of them flitted in and around the apple tree, the hazelnut tree (every nut gone to squirrels) -- very close to where I was standing. I've gotten pretty good at imitating their ratchety song, and they respond by drawing closer and settling-in on a branch, facing me. There is little in my garden to attract them this year, and yet they are daily present. I imagine that soon they will begin their aerial trek southward, and the humming of wings will lie dormant in memory.

3 comments:

  1. How very lucky you are T. My daughter in Australia has a variety of parrots in her garden.... but they just eat all the fruit.

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  2. only to return again next year T. Keep the faith!

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  3. a beautiful illustration.

    I love the lil' buggers: so pretty and sparkly. But they can be quite rude to one another, I've discovered. Oh well, aren't we all? Especially when it comes to FOOD.

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