Hummingbird in Cusco, Peru, 2012 – Photo: L. Weikel
First Hummingbird
I’m not sure what came over me this afternoon. I’ll blame it on allergies. There is, after all, an ever-replenishing layer of yellow green pollen coating everything – tabletops, chairs, floors, cars. I have a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels at the ready because the air truly is thick with the stuff. And just as the afternoon air seemed to reach critical warmth, my eyes refused to stay open. I leaned against the pillows on the glider and drowsily rode the waves of the wind chimes…until “Bzzzzzzz!” I was jolted from my reverie by the season’s first hummingbird!
In fairness to this newby, I was wearing a neon orange shirt. So mistaking my hulking figure for a tasty and tantalizing nectar station might be excused – or at least might not be as glaring a miscalculation as one might think. Then again, it may not have been a miscalculation at all. If this was indeed a hummingbird returning to its ‘summer home’ from last year, it may have been feeling legitimately off-put by our failure to have a welcome home meal ready and waiting.
Close Encounter
Perhaps I was that in-between state I enter when I’m half asleep, but if I had to swear to it, I would: I felt the air above my head and face being buffeted by the blindingly rapid movement of the hummer’s wings. That’s how close it was to my drowsy countenance.
Needless to say, though, I was unprepared for such an early arrival. So I’m just going to have to make do with a photo from two years ago. Makes me realize that I need to try to snag more shots of these dazzling creatures. I’m chagrined that I only have one photo of our perennial visitors.
Ah! But here’s a bonus. My search for a photo for this post has revealed one I took of a hummingbird that visited me as I sat on a balcony in Cusco, Peru, in February 2012. I visited Peru that month on a quest to heal – or at least dive deep into – my grief over losing Karl only three months earlier.
Early? Late? On Time?
I’m surprised I haven’t mentioned the arrival of the hummingbirds in any other posts. I wonder when my first sighting was last year – or the year before. It’s curious that I’ve not documented (and celebrated) the return of the hummingbirds before this, since I always seem to announce the arrival of peepers.
And I do want to give a shout out to Karl. As soon as he heard I’d been buzzed, he retrieved the cleaned and emptied feeders we stored when the hummers headed south for the winter. I ran out to Giant to purchase a bag of plain white refined sugar (their favorite), which Karl then used to make their nectar.
So who knows? Maybe tomorrow, if I’m very very lucky, my weary little traveler will return. And maybe it’ll even pose for a photo. (Doubt it. But hey, you never know.)
Hummer from our porch, July ’19 – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-208)
