First time I saw a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, it didn’t have a ruby throat. It was a female, and females have plain white throats.
Should be the opposite. Rubies belong on girls.
Anyway, first time I saw this small bird it captured my attention, big time. That was a while back.
But yesterday at dusk I saw a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird again, humming around my house.
Must be the hundredth time I’ve seen one of these, male or female. Should be no big deal.
But I looked at it with interest, just like the first time. I wondered why I didn’t get a “been there, done that” feeling.
I get that feeling from a lot of things…
At college, I rode a friend’s motorcycle around the countryside. The campus was corny in a way I didn’t like. I liked far-out corn fields better.
I’d roar around the 2-lanes, sometimes on gravel, going way over ninety. No helmet. I was an idiot.
I soon got tired of the speed. I don’t ride those bikes any more. That’s what I mean by “been there, done that.”
But last night, I was still interested in looking at a small bird. Could it be interesting because it was just that? Small?
Probably not. I remembered stopping suddenly while driving through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I left the car and took off into the woods.
I’d seen something big in the treetops. A lot bigger than a hummingbird. Yeah, a Bald Eagle. Big bird. Big deal.
But, I’d seen eagles before. They were pretty common there, and I’d also seen them in Alaska, where they’re like pigeons in some places.
Still, as I bushwhacked back to the road I had no regrets. Just black-fly bites, scratches from thorns and another cool eagle sighting.
Some things may get old with time. And they lose their charge when you experience them. Like a fast motorcycle.
But seeing an eagle isn’t one of them. And seeing the hummingbird yesterday wasn’t one, either. I looked for the “been there, done that” feeling. Almost expected it.
But it wasn’t there. A hummingbird was, though, and I watched it.
I think the birders who get all “been there, done that” about ANY bird are missing out. The hobby just isn’t very fun if you only get excited about the lifers and rarities, so I thank you for this post.
By the way, birding in the U.P. is fun, eh? I grew up in Marquette, and was a birder before I even knew it. All it took was a pair of binoculars that would actually focus, and a husband who was interested, and this birding thing has become a full-time obsession.
Just moved from Palmer Lake to Colorado Springs, and our mountainside home was mobbed by hummers. I could carry my granddaughters onto the deck and have hummers hovering right in front of the eyes and buzzing in and out. It gave them and me an enhanced sense of the magic of life.
I was concerned that they would find us here in the new house. We don’t have the scrub oak forests surrounding us, but yesterday as I sat on the deck sipping a beer and reading, the first one appeared at the feeder. I think we will be just fine, and I have a new 10 month-old granddaughter to introduce to the magic of hummers!
LOVE the hummingbird! Little warriors, gorgeous and colourful! It never fails to fill me with WONDER, watching them.
Great blog, THANKS!
Once upon a time I had to jump back onto the curb seconds before a city of Chicago bus came roaring past…was knocked down at work by a forklift, and also ran for my life at a parade when a car came flying through the intersection and blew a tire on the median, bouncing onto the curb right where I was no longer sitting.
Not long after I was sitting on my porch and saw some not as big thing come flying right towards me fast, and I thought to myself, what the hell is coming at me now? Been there, done that!! Seems I’m forever watching out for the other guy, the rest were on land but this was from the sky.
Looked to be about the size of a baseball, but there were no such fields around the house, so I ruled that out, and no one was down on the street anyway. Didn’t have too much time to think about it before it reached me, came to a dead stop like a mini helo,hovered, did a 360 and went back the other way. What a hummer! Haven’t seen one since I was a kid… bright emerald greeen and the only one out of the bunch that gave me a good feeling. I’m glad it done that when I been there out on the porch.
Well-put and I have often felt the same –
Reading this blog never loses its charge for me.