The other day I was waiting for the light to turn and something caught my eye. Many of the corners here have nice flower baskets mounted on poles for decoration. Hovering by one of these was a small creature.
At first I thought it was an extremely massive moth, or some other bizarrely large and strangely-shaped insect. It had a long, very curly tongue that it would stick into the pinkish-purple flowers.
The longer I looked, however, the more I began to notice about it. It didn't appear to have any legs, much less six of them, and it had a short, tufty tail that spread out like a fan of playing cards.
Its wings seemed to move either too quickly or too slowly for an insect's, but there seemed to be no audible buzz like I'd expect from any bug that big. But surely it was too small to be a bird...it looked just a little tinier in size than my thumb.
And yet, after much mental debate, I realized that it may very well have been a hummingbird.
As I pondered, watching it, and tried to gather more visual assurance of my speculation, the light turned, and I let my feet take me away.
At first I thought it was an extremely massive moth, or some other bizarrely large and strangely-shaped insect. It had a long, very curly tongue that it would stick into the pinkish-purple flowers.
The longer I looked, however, the more I began to notice about it. It didn't appear to have any legs, much less six of them, and it had a short, tufty tail that spread out like a fan of playing cards.
Its wings seemed to move either too quickly or too slowly for an insect's, but there seemed to be no audible buzz like I'd expect from any bug that big. But surely it was too small to be a bird...it looked just a little tinier in size than my thumb.
And yet, after much mental debate, I realized that it may very well have been a hummingbird.
As I pondered, watching it, and tried to gather more visual assurance of my speculation, the light turned, and I let my feet take me away.
