The Hummingbird and the Dancing Girls

It was Saturday and I finally got to spend some time in the yard. The hummingbirds are becoming more scarce, and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before they leave us for the year. So I sat out in the yard in both early morning and early evening to watch the show.

There had been so much action at the feeder lately that I'd put a second one up. The first one, in the butterfly garden in the side yard, was being guarded ferociously by a male. The second one, we hung from the clothes line above the deck, where it was visited regularly by several females who also enjoyed sitting on the clothes line.

But the yellow jackets started bothering the second feeder, and so we cleaned it and refilled it and moved it into the front of the meadow. I decided to hang both the hummingbird feeder and the hanging plant (a fuchsia) where the Dancing Girls live from a double shepherd's hook, to create a little special area for them.

When evening came, I had a front row seat, and I was not disappointed. The light was shining through the trees and all was peaceful. A juvenile male (you can almost see the little red dot on his throat) came by and visited both feeders and chatted with the Dancing Girls, and it was just fantastic, like something out of a dream.

I know the tiny birds must leave us soon because surely they can't stay. But I don't want it to happen. Every year, we grow sad when the season begins to change, not because we don't love autumn (we do!) but because the hummingbirds must soon take their leave of us. So the song to accompany this wistful posting is KC & the Sunshine Band, with Please Don't Go.