I just saw a hummingbird, for the first time in my life.
I was standing on the deck, about to come inside, when what seemed like two butterflies or a really big dragonfly flitted past me and paused at one of my flower boxes.
When my eyes had focussed I realised that this was a hummingbird.
It truly was tiny. Huge for a dragonfly but tiny for a bird.
Dark greens and blues shimmered as it drank from my petunias and tried to find an open flower on the hibiscus and made a pass at the artificial flowers wrapped around my trellis. I suspect is had discovered the hibiscus a few days ago and came back for that. I’ve never had a hibiscus before and it’s classic hummingbird bait. It dipped int the new begonias I had just put out, and then zipped off.
I was standing there the whole time, feet from the thing, mouth hanging open, grinning like the proverbial idiot, and thinking “Hummingbird! Wow!”
I see hummingbird feeders in the garden centers all the time, but I don’t think I ever believed we really had hummingbirds in this area. How can I have lived here for 13 years and never seen a hummingbird before if they really live here?
I feel like I just walked out my front door and saw a unicorn trot past.