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I was about five years old. We had a screened in porch and one morning when I stepped out onto the porch I discover a hummingbird had stuck its beak into the screen. I had never seen a hummingbird before, I didn't even know hummingbirds existed. Slowly I approached the screen, the struggling bird flapping wildly on the other side. I stood close to the screen, quietly studying the tiny bird trying to disengage itself from the screen, trying to figure out how I could help without hurting the poor little thing. Very slowly I raised my hand, and using the tip of my index finger, I gently pushed against the tip of the beak poking through my side of the screen. The trap was sprung and the hummer flew away. The memory has never left me, but many decades passed before I became interested in planting a hummingbird haven around my home.
After my home was built I didn't really have an interest in what the landscaper planted. Low maintenance was the priority and I told him to plant whatever he thought best. He put in some weigela, one bush just below a kitchen window. The bushes had to be trimmed each year, so they weren't as low maintenance as I had wanted. The second time I saw a hummingbird was one spring morning when the weigela were in bloom. But I still wasn't hummingbird crazy. When each spring came, and the weigela bloomed, I became more concious of the possibility I might see a hummer, but I didn't overthink the matter, just briefly enjoyed the handful of sightings when they happened.
Then I started walking through the neighbor for exercise. I started noticing the landscaping around homes. I saw a red feeder, but didn't know what type of bird it was feeding and didn't give it much thought. But the colors in the landscaping around the homes I found very interesting. By comparison, my home was neatly landscaped, but cookie-cutter boring. I decided I need to add some color, on a small scale, and decided to hang some baskets on my front porch. I bought some old-fashioned red petunias...and saw a hummingbird at the flowers. The next year I added a couple more hanging baskets of red petunias around the patio...and had more sightings. I got a book about hummingbirds from the library and found out who visited the red feeders. I bought my first feeder, an eight ounce strawberry with perches, and decided red petunias were not enough advertising.
I became hummingbird crazy 10-15 years ago.
What about you? What's your story?
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