RUFOUS....stout of heart and bursting with spunk.

malefemale

 'Now Old Mother Nature could not bear to waste anything. She made him a teeny, weeny bird, feathers that were teeny weeny. A teeny weeny tail.She gave him a long bill with  which to reach  teeny weeny insects in the flowers.And he was perfect......" 
                    -Mother West Wind Stories by Thornton Burgess.

 My favourite books of all when I was little. The Mother West Wind stories . Especially the Hummingbird. I imagine him to be the hummingbird from the Thornton Burgess book. Only weighs 32 grams. Teeny Weeny.

A couple of years ago we rescued an Annas hummer. Big as a finger.

 The male Rufous  glows like copper pennies. Females are greenish above with a patch of glowing copper at the neck.

 When I was growing up  we lived in a forested area.  You could hear the hummingbirds during the day. The Rufous and the Annas. Battling it out over the feeder.

 They  made that zeeeeeeeeeeeeee noise when they flew by.

 Darting in and out like fireflies.

 My mother and I would sit on the old porch , eating supper, or reading,  with my grandfather's radio in the doorway to catch the news.

 Then the hummers started in at the feeder. My mother would turn off the radio. And we'd watch the Rufous and the Annas battle it out.  Rufous usually won. Kind of a bossy little thing. He always got the feeder to himself. The Annas hummer would have to wait his turn.

  Rufous nest as far as Alaska, and in Canada. They will return each year to the same area and look for a place to nest or feed for while. I've heard that they look for the same feeder. They remember. Smart little things.

 Every year I look for the Rufous. Just like we used to do  when I was growing up. 

 I found a nest once. Grass, spider webs, and soft stuff teased together with moss.  Rufous will reuse nests and build one higher up in the season. Usually fussing over 1-2 eggs per season.

 After 19 days the young hummers are ready to fly. Then there are a lot more zeeeeeees in the sky.

 "May my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living..." -e.e. Cummings

 Those nights that we listened to the Rufous buzz and whrr around the porch, we didn't realize it but were heading north. By late summer Rufous head along the Rocky Mountains down to Mexico to winter.

 Apparently, they have this huge trip to get a large variety of food. As much as they can  eat. Insects, nectar, feeders....Along the way, pollinating flowers as it goes.

 They travel over 6000 kilometres in their journey. 

 And each year  they return I like to think that maybe they have been here before, or maybe it's their children returning.

 As of this date, it is considered to be on the Canada U.S watch list for endangered species, since it's numbers have declined.Sometimes, they will move on after visiting in your garden, and move north. Sometimes they stay. And then I can listen to the zeeeeeeeee once again.....

 "And I think to myself.....What a Wonderful World..."
                                                         -Louis Armstrong

 Photographs 2019