Anna's Hummingbirds are going nuts, draining the feeders now, and males
frequently engaged in their courtship pendulous dives and whistling tail
snaps, especially during sunny breaks. Yesterday was sunny all day and during
the afternoon while sitting on the back porch during a yard/garden work
break, one was doing just that right over my right shoulder. The interesting
perspective on all this however was since it was awkward to actually see
from where I was sitting was watching it's shadow off the lower 4 feet of the
back kitchen door. If I had had a video camera, I could have traced every
one of the dozen or so dives in almost the exact same shadow line on the
door. Add to that, it was at this point that the dive peaked near the
bottom with the whistling tail snap. I've often watched them repeatedly do
their thing but it's always hard to determine exactly when the emitted noise
happens. However, just the shadow streaking across the door surprisingly
made it amazingly simple and obvious; all during just the last 4 feet of the
dive and when the 'shadow' bolted upward again a few inches from the bottom
of the door. They say the best and safest way to view a solar eclipse is
by positioning a tube in such a way to focus the sun on a piece of white
paper or some other light colored object. Watching this hummingbird via it's
shadow 'eclipsing' the sun was indeed similar, thrilling, and very
effective.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA