Hummingbirds

This week I had an interesting experience with a hummingbird in our backyard.  I was standing near an  orange tree in our backyard with a handful of oranges and buzzing bees, when a hummingbird flew right up about 2 feet from my face!  It stopped in mid-air, and hovered as it turned one side of his face towards me, then quickly flipped around showing me the other side of its face. Then about 10 seconds later it flew off into the distance. The way it flew quickly up to me and flipped rapidly from side to side felt like it was making an aggressive move towards me to protect its precious nectar from the orange tree blossoms.  I felt for it! I'm sure flowers and trees with nectar are becoming more and more difficult to find in our overpopulated neighborhoods.

Interesting fact about hummingbirds that I discovered from Wikipedia:  with the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings.  They also consume more than their own weight in nectar each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily (hence the aggressive flying by my face in front of the orange tree)!!  Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death, and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight.  They can also fly backwards, and are the only group of birds able to do so.  Lastly, hummingbirds are such good fliers that most of them are poor walkers and never walk farther than 2 inches!

This picture is something I drew this week, and I really loved the pinks of the flowers along with the way the sky seemed to come alive with all the different hues of blue and violet.  The greens of the hummingbird were also very striking to me. I hope by drawing these beautiful creatures of nature that, if nothing else, I help to expose this beauty to others and maybe, just maybe, make a small difference in the way we treat our fragile world.

Here's to a beautiful week whatever you do!