Saturday, May 26, 2012

The meteor with the needle bill

A hummingbird, not sure what species, doing what it does best
Arenal, Costa Rica 
"And make us happy in the darting bird,
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stand still."

- Robert Frost

There's something about watching hummingbirds live in action. They're tiny, so tiny that they could easily be mistaken for butterflies. They buzz when they fly past you, they flap their wings at what seems like a 100 times per second, they hover in mid-air, they're all at once colorful and shiny and full of life. The first time I saw one was last week in Costa Rica. I have so much to share about the place.  Lots of pictures too. But the first hummingbird I saw, I knew that I'm not leaving that country without getting a good photograph of it. Haha!

In retrospect, it does sound like I made a bigger deal than it should have been but then, all I wanted was one decent picture of this shiny little speck of restless!

In the end, I did manage to get a couple. Also got pointed out the smallest little hummingbird nest, a picture of which I can share with you if you like and a bunch of other hummingbird shots that I'm proud of.

While it's not an earth-shattering, paradigm-changing photograph by any stretch of anyone's imagination, it is in essence my eight day trip defined in one picture.

May you be blessed by the delight of finding a hummingbird hover around your head someday!  

1 comment:

Jomy John said...

Nice Photo. Please post more.