Zippin along by JeffreyW
“How do you fall in love with hummingbirds?” I asked my teens. We were sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner while two female ruby-throated hummers flitted back and forth outside the window.
My two teens stared blankly back at me. Silence… “I mean it,” I said, “I want to tell people how to fall in love with hummingbirds. How do you do it?” Still silence. “Well,” I said, “How do you fall in love?”
Falling in love is simple
“What is the first step in falling in love?”
My teen daughter was growing impatient. “You see. You fall in love,” was her curt reply. “Who needs to ask how to fall in love with a hummingbird? It’s simple. Just see one.”
How to see hummingbirds
Assuming you don’t have Mom to do it for you, it’s still surprisingly easy to “snare” a hummingbird or two to fall in love with. Here are five ways to attract them.
- Add at least one native flowering plant or shrub with red, trumpet-shaped flowers to your garden.
- Hang a hummingbird feeder – preferably from your window.
- Leave slim dead branches on your trees. Hummingbirds need very narrow perches for their tiny feet. They like to sit on leafless branches, which give them an open view.
- Put out rotten fruit, such as tomatoes and banana peels. Hummingbirds need small insects to add protein to their diet and they enjoy fruit flies.
- Tie bright red, pink, or orange ribbons to your trees and to your feeder. When you put up a new feeder hummers will need to find it before you will see them. Hummers are attracted to red, pink, and orange objects.
Are you in love yet?
“It’s easy to fall in love with a hummingbird.” My teens haven’t forgotten my dumb question – two days later they’re still shaking their heads over it. Is it really that easy, or does life get in the way for most of us? Have you fallen in love with nature yet?
Kid tip: actions speak louder than words. When kids live with adults who respect and care for nature they just think that’s the way the world is.
