The Hummingbird

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stand still.

~Robert Frost

There’s a fiery hummingbird who’s taken up residence in the trees behind the house.

She’s not like the others and I trust there’s a lesson there.

Feathers glistening in rusty reds and deep oranges, it flies between the trees, chirping and calling and warning all other hummingbirds to stay away from its tree and its feeder.

Full of fire and passion, I’m convinced there must be a nest in that tree because I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

Day after day…chirping and dive-bombing and distracting.

I’ve tried to get a shot of it for weeks now but that little bugger is as fast as it is smart. As soon as I pull out my camera it disappears.

And still I try.

And so I’ve gotten several shots of other hummingbirds in the process.

Some good, some full of blurry excitement…

My own or that of the too-fast-for-my-camera hummingbird magic.

It’s a practice in patience that is proving to be worth every second.

xoxo,
M