On an unrelated note, we were stunned by the sight of a couple of Anna's hummingbirds the other day, which prompted me to hang out at the same place I'd seen them back in the summer. I waited for today's fine weather to go looking for them again and I found two of them. I followed their calls to a thicket of bushes where I spotted one of them resting on a branch, quite low down. I snapped a few quick photos expecting it to fly off, spooked by my proximity. To my surprise it stayed put, and as I moved a little closer, I was amazed to see a second bird barely three feet from my nose! It was sitting quite still, breathing rapidly, and was even better positioned to catch the sunshine. I took as many photos as I could, and even recorded a couple of video clips before it decided it had had enough and flew off. Wow - hummingbirds in November?
I had to go read up on the hummingbirds and it turns out that the Anna's have expanded their range along the west coast of North America over the course of the last couple of hundred years, to the extent that they are now largely resident year-round in the Vancouver area. Seeing hummingbirds at all is something I love about this area: having resident hummingbirds is even more amazing. I'm going to keep an eye out for these birds over the winter and hope they find enough to keep them going.
Anna's hummingbird at rest
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