During the entire week that we spent together on Vancouver Island, Frida wouldn’t stop talking about the hummingbirds, and more specifically, that she wanted to see one. I saw hummngbirds both in Victoria and in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, but since the others always were so far ahead of me, I couldn’t show them to Frida. I’m not sure if she ever got to see a hummingbird.
Here, at the farm, there are many hummingbirds. Lori has a feeder with nectar on the large balcony outside the big kitchen/dining room/living room, and in the mornings and evenings, the hummintbirds come there to eat. They are fascinating creatures, so tiny and insectlike, but still birds. And they are very colourful too. Sometimes, when they stop mid-air, keeping steady with their blurrily fast wings, you can see their red chests shine.
One afternoon, when I was walking around the house, I noticed two hummingbirds on the wrong side of the glass in the downstairs suite. One was unfortunately dead, but the other was still desperately trying to get out through the window.
I did as I always do when insects have lost themselves inside – I took a bucket and a paper and tried to catch the hummingbird against the window with the bucket. The little creature wasn’t very cooperative, but finally I caught it, and using the paper as a lid managed to get the bird outside. I gently let it out on the ground, where it at first seemed to play dead, then just sit there and look, letting me take as many photos of it as I wanted. Then, suddenly, it flew off.
That’s got to be worths something. Saving a hummingbird. Lastly, before I took the dead hummingbird to it’s final grave among horse maure and weeds, I took a few shots of it’s amazingly shiny chest. They are beautiful creatures, hummingbirds.
Katja Malmborg 