This morning two baleful looking boys came to my door with a treasure, a
female rufous hummingbird. It had been hit by a car and one of the boys
carefully cradled it in his hands as we admired this tiny jewel. We walked
out to the road, and soon drew a crowd of other kids, it being summer
vacation and all. I took over the bird, and as it was placed in my hand it
moved! It's alive! As 9 kids circled all watched in breathless anticipation
and silent hope, the tiny stunned bird raised its head, calmly surveyed the
crowd, then lay quiet but with eyes open for a few more minutes. One of the
kids ran off and came back with a red columbine flower, holding it out in
hopes of enticing the bird. Since this kid is barely four years old I was
delighted that someone this young had experienced that this plant attracts
hummingbirds. This must have reminded her that she was hungry as she
lifted her head, then took off, doing a wonderful imitation of a helicopter,
going straight up into the hair and hovered a movement over our head, then
zooming off out of sight.

I think we have 8-10 hummingbirds on the property, and of course each
hummingbird sighted for the rest of the day was eagerly reported as
progress of "our" hummingbird.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


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