HUMMING BIRD

      Every year I get a visit from a hummingbird. One bird . One visit. That's it.

      Two weeks ago I was at the edge of my vegetable garden and out of the corner of my  eye, the humming bird flew to the middle of my garden and then zigged and was gone. I could not see any color or make an identification.  The whole thing was over in a second. I'm used to this kind of visit.

     At one time I had scarlet runner beans running up a trellis on the side of the house. I did get more visits with the beans but not many.

    I enjoy birds and like to watch humming birds. I've  been places where they have a feeder and many visits are made through out the day.

    I guess I'll have to be satisfied with what I get. 

THE ANNUAL VISIT

       At my place, humming birds are like Santa. They come once a year.

       So yesterday I saw a hummingbird at my scarlet runner beans. It checked the red blooms  for about 30 seconds and was gone.

      Now , surprise , surprise. I saw a hummingbird this morning at the same scarlet runner beans for a full 2 seconds!

     Now I'm sure more than one hummingbird visits my yard. I'm sure that I see only a small percentage of all birds that visit my yard. I know that other birders near me see lots of hummingbirds and have very active feeders.

    I get envious when I see bloggers showing many hummingbirds at feeders. They show several hummingbirds at one time.

    Now I like hummingbirds and would like to have more visit me.

    There are four species of hummingbird that spend the breeding season in Alberta. Three of them spend their time in the Rockie Mountains. One , the Ruby-throated spends its summer in central Alberta.

    The ruby-throated seems to be a tough little bird as it's sometimes seen at the end of September and beginning of October.

    So if I want to see more hummingbirds I'm going to have to move somewhere else or be a very good boy.



Photo by Phil French