Beauty in Nature

I grew up in an isolated area along the Canadian Border, in Northern New York. It was time when a time the land still talked to the people. Nature was my mother in many ways, and interacting with nature taught me invaluable lessons. She is both fierce and beautiful, but always awesome.
On my other blog, mythicmusing, I have been writing about my experiences with a numinous image: reindeer goddess. Due to my interest in reindeer, I discovered the story of baby Blue: he his the first wild reindeer born in England since the Ice Age and he was born on May Day.

photo by Adam Gerrard/SWNS





In prior posts I have told stories of my adventures in hummingbird triage and rescue.
A colleague of mine at Pacific Paranormal Investigations recently pointed out a hummingbird web cam to me; meet mother Phoebe and her hatch-lings Hope and Hoku.

I hope these images are as inspiring to you as they are to me.

Hummingbird Visit

There is absolutely nothing to say about how miserable my body is. Day after day after day. *sigh*

So instead, I took a photo of one of the winged people that lives in the tree outside my front door. He buzzes me when I step out. He's a chipper fellow!

The Virtue of Small Things

Being chronically sick has given me a chance to notice things that would have been missed in the rush of the 24/7 working world. For example, my front doorstep/patio has it's own little world. I live in suburb of a very large city, but my single story condo faces a small greenbelt . During the late winter, this area is populated with hundreds of hummingbirds on their way to and from North and South America. This also happens to be their mating season. Hummingbirds are very territorial, and will fight each other for access to food and mates.
The first winter after we moved in, I noticed that exhausted hummingbirds were dropping on my doorstep. Since I knew nothing about these tiny marvels, and I did not want them to die on my doorstep, I decided to learn what I could do to help them. I contacted a lady who works for the San Diego Zoo. She came to my home and gave me a crash course in hummingbird urgent care. Now, when I see a downed hummer, all I have to do is hold it gently, and put a dropper of nectar-water over it's beak. If you see downed hummer, it's because it is exhausted and has low blood sugar. If they don't get nectar, they slip into a coma and die. Hummingbirds are not afraid of humans.... they don't struggle when you pick them up. After they receive enough nectar, they will fly out of your hands, off to their next adventure.
The photo above is of me feeding a female (the males are brightly colored) hummingbird. The length of time it takes to revive a hummingbird depends on how depleted their blood sugar is. It can take a few minutes, or a few hours. It doesn't matter to me. All I have is time....