I had a wonderful wildlife encounter this morning. After partaking of some rock hopping in the middle of our rushing backyard brook, I came up to relax on the grass above it, in sight of the great White Pine tree. I was happily listening to the sounds around me when I heard an increasingly loud buzz and saw a blur of green wings directly in front of me.A female Ruby-throated hummingbird hovered a paw’s reach from my ears. She was stunningly small and beautiful, but much sturdier that I’d thought imaginable. I’d never seen a hummer so close. She pranced about me a bit – I think she thought my ears were flowers (they are kind of unusual, my ears – the products of teenage cat fights). I didn’t move, but calmly mrrrrred. She dipped a bit, paused once more, inches from my whisker tips, then went on about drinking the nectar of the touch-me-nots along the brook. Oom and I watched her for another 5 minutes or so.
Amazing! I am sad to say there is no pictorial record.
What was she thinking? Had she grown used to seeing me in the yard? There have been a half-dozen or so hummers threading through our airspace all summer, enjoying our neighbor’s trumpet vine and our many flowering plants. They’ve sat in front of Oom in the blackberry bushes and buzzed high above me many times. It should be time to migrate south very soon.
What an honor for a furry cat-guy.
