Sunday, September 27, 2009

Hummingbird

Yesterday morning, as I opened my front door, I noticed a buzzing, darting, flying creature moving about from flower to flower in my yard. At first I thought it was a dragonfly, but soon realized that it was a hummingbird. I seldom see hummingbirds on the island, but when I do I find them totally fascinating. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped onto the porch the tiny bird flitted away. I have no idea which species of hummingbird it was, but I do know that several kinds migrate south in the fall of the year. Maybe this one was on his/her way to Mexico or Central America.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a reprint of an article Philip wrote about sailing aboard the historic two-masted schooner, Mary E. It was originally published in the Washington Post in 1976. You can read it here:
http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news092109.htm

5 comments:

  1. Gee . . . I always assumed that there were plenty of hummingbirds on the island because of the hummingbird cake on the menu at the Cafe Atlantic.

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  2. Anonymous3:44 PM

    Like Michael, I figured they were on the island all summer. Wonder if anyone puts feeders out for them. We use to love to feed & watch them here on the Mountain, but lately if I forgot to take the feeds in at night the Bears would tear them down. Bears finally won this year, I quite feeding them my mid summer. Nollie

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  3. Sheesh . . . I just learned that there ain't no hummingbirds in hummingbird cake! Just like Rob Temple always says, "There ain't no flamingoes in Flamingo."

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  4. Anonymous12:16 PM

    A co-worker spoke of encountering the migrating Monarch Butterflies while on vacation in the Florida panhandle. This was early September-- There are tracking web sites that welcome visitors to report sightings of Monarchs and they also track hummingbirds. perhaps you could post your sighting.

    To the poster and the lost feeder-- you could always plant a Butterfly Garden.

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  5. Michael,

    ...hummingbird cake, baby oil...you have to read the ingredients on everything!

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