The Return of the Hummingbirds

 It is with much relief and unbridled joy that on a cold and foggy Saturday morning I saw the hummingbird at the feeder.

It is these birds, and the sunsets, that have sustained me over this last year and a half.  I faithfully clean out the feeder and fill it with nectar and hang it in the hibiscus tree every two weeks. My hibiscus tree does what a hibiscus tree does - it rests during winter and the glorious flowers return in June.  The humming bird/birds were there every day last year - hot days, rainy days, fog filled days, smoke clotted weeks - there they were, making their rrrrrrrrrr sound with their tiny wings.  NOT happy when I opened my door to greet them, but nevertheless, dipped their long narrow beaks time and again into the feeder.

In June this year the flowers reappeared.  At first just a few, way up in the tree, then the spent flowers fell onto the potted plants and cement below, and more flowers opened, lower down.  Every day I opened my door to greet the sun, or the fog, or the damp, but no hummingbirds.  Along with all the other losses this was the most hard to accept - where could they be? Did they succumb to climate change, to predators, were they caring for their young?  I spent a long time sitting on my deck gazing into the tree, looking for a flutter, listening for a peep - nothing.  At least a month or more, nothing.  I continued cleaning and replenishing the feeder, looking, hoping, ....... nothing.

And then - joy of joys I saw one Saturday morning. And now - every day since - there it is (or they are)m- dipping into the flowers and the feeder, irritated with me, 

As the world around continues to fall apart, my little birds are back.

JOY