As I walked back from church today, tired and hot and needing a nap, I heard a small "vit! Vit!" noise at the road entrance to our apartment complex. Looking around, I spied a tiny hummingbird perched on a palm tree.
Normally hummingbirds are zipping around all the time, like a four year-old sans Ritalin. This one was just sitting on the palm leaf. I watched it for a bit. It didn't move. This was surprising - perhaps I could get a photo. I hastily fumbled in my bag for my little camera and took several photos. The hummingbird just sat there on its branch, unconcerned.
But I was getting tired again and really needed my nap. I walked back home and grabbed Brendan and the big camera on the tiny chance that the hummingbird would still be there. I didn't have much hope - for one to stay still-ish for ten minutes is nothing short of a miracle.
So I fully didn't expect it to be still there 5 minutes later. I walked very close to the tree, and it seemed unconcerned while I snapped photos. Eventually it started flying in circuits - from the palm tree to the tree across the footpath, then to another palm tree, then back to the first, several times. It moved so fast I could hardly follow it with the camera, making its "Vit! Vit!" sound. It had a dark olive-green /brown body and a red head, but another we saw by the gym didn't. So maybe it was the male one, I think it's an "Anna's Hummingbird" species.
The rest of the photos of it from our webshots album are here.
1 comment:
They are cute aren't they? I've got some pictures of them at a place called Mercer Caverns in Murphys (near to Arnold). There were humming bird feeders thereso lots of them around.
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