"Mom moment"

The Chief was out mowing the weeds today while I was doing some photo organizing for insurance purposes. Suddenly I hear him tap-tap-tapping on the front door - there was a hummingbird in the impatiens bed! I grabbed my camera and started clicking away. I'd need a much better camera with a very fast shutter to keep up with that little hummer, but I did get one or two pics that weren't too bad.

This one was a different breed than the ones we've seen at the cabin - smaller, with a long beak or proboscis or whatever, and mostly browns. At least, that's what color the blur was. (I ended up deleting nearly half the pictures because they were too blurry to see anything but smears of color.) Given its size, color and shape, the little bird looked more like a large hornet or something similar.

It kept zipping from one flower to another, concentrating on the pink ones. It considered & rejected one of the purple ones and seemed to ignore the red ones entirely. It also zipped away several times, stopping briefly to check out the Chief's trouser leg, the can of WD40, or the reel of bright-orange extension cord (it's an electric mower) before returning to the pink impatiens. I wonder if it'll tell the rest of the family about the buffet...

Mom loved hummingbirds, always had at least one or two feeders stocked. I wish I could call her up & tell her about our little visitor. I've been planting impatiens in that bed for 10 years at least and this is the first time we've ever seen a hummingbird anywhere near them. I hope they make this a regular haunt.