Hummingbirds

As you search on the internet about Hummingbirds you'll find there are a lot of articles on the net that tell you how to attract the birds and how to keep hummingbird feeders with sugar water and so on...

I'm of the firm belief that we should not intervene with Nature's natural patterns and the natural migration routes of these beautiful little creatures... so my method of practice would be to create a natural hummingbird garden full of their favorite plants....

We may not know the right time of year to take out the feeders or to put them in but if it is a garden full of flowering perennials and shrubs, we can leave that guess work up to Nature. If hummingbird feeders are not kept clean, we can actually do more harm than good... even the plastic feeders baking in direct sunlight are found to leech chemicals into the syrup feed!

The photos in this article are from a recent trip to a friend's cottage... I was so fortunate to capture these pictures of the hummingbird feeding on Evening Primrose flowers. Rather than having open grass around the cottage, my friend had decided to plant wildflowers everywhere! The beauty of this is that you can spend time watching the flowers grow, watching the bees flourish and in this case... sit quietly in the garden and wait for one of these beautiful little jewels to buzz by you on his way to hover over a flower while you snap your pictures...

This guy decided to sit in front of my face and check me out first before he went to his flowers... I tend to look at this encounter as if he interviewed me before he would let me take his pictures. When they are in their natural element (sans man-made feeders) they are fearless and in control.