Creative Writing Life As A Hummingbird Essay

, Research Paper

Creative Writing: Life As A Hummingbird

I eased behind the huge mass of nesting material and took a firm hold of

several strands, I then pulled back, quickly, to pull them free. The jarring

concussion, which followed, took me by suprise. I tried to get my bearings as

the ground rushed up to meet me and recovered about two feet from the ground.

After that near miss I climbed back to the altitude I had been at and started

searching for my tormentor. I realized that I had grabbed hold of a human’s hair

and that he had not been happy about it. He was rubbing his head and throwing

immense volumes of noise at me. Hummingbirds make mistakes just like everyone

else and more than most when trying to build and protect a nest.

I decided that I should look elsewhere and settled on a lovely little spider

web. I dove toward it, feeling the thrum of my wings and hearing the whoosh of

the wind flowing past. The web glowed gold in the morning sunlight and dew drops

hanging from it shone like liquid fire. A gnat flew too close and I captured it

with a snap of my long tongue. Snaring a long piece of the silk, I immediately

ascended, looking for my tree. My mate was awaiting my return, and was soon

rewarded as I pulled up to the carefully camouflaged nest. I passed the silken

strand over to her and left to find some food.

The humans are very good to us and hang tremendous reservoirs of nectar from

various limbs and rafters. The containers come in all shapes and colors but they

all have red bases. I headed for one of these and saw one of my rival males. He

instantly attacked, chirping his anger at my intrusion. I counterattacked and we

began a dogfight. Up and down, we came, zooming into space and plummeting to the

ground. Although he was a willing and able opponent, I eventually wore him down,

and he then left the scene. I held a precise hover as my tongue formed a tube,

then I began slurping the sweet nectar from the feeder. Although I only weigh

about one half of an once, I consume twice that much food every day. I captured

a dozen mosquitoes on my way back to the nest and then sat on the nest to keep

the eggs warm while my mate went in search of food.

Sitting in the nest is a luscious feeling. The eggs are warm and the inside

of the nest is silky and soft. My counterpart constructed the nest from our

downy feathers and spider’s silk. My mate designed and constructed the nest, and

the lichens and bark conceal it from predators. The first nest, which we had,

was not as well built and a Blue Jay came and ate the eggs. I arrived just as

the Blue Jay attacked the nest. He rammed it twice and knocked the eggs out. The

eggs fell to the ground and the jay went after them. I charged, feeling the

intense rush that my fury gave me.I felt no fear as I beheld the onrushing

behemoth. Such was my courage that I hardly noticed the crushing slap of

collision as I assaulted him repeatedly. Finally, I had to accept defeat though

and recognize that my defence was futile.

This time all was not to be in vain though, as I felt the slight tap of the

chicks trying to free themselves. They escaped after a few minutes and, I

witnessed the miracle that we had brought about. Two baby hummingbirds lay there,

chirping for food. Each was no larger than a bumblebee, but they were just as

loud as I am when defending my life. My mate took over and began feeding them.

Soon, they were asleep, blissfully unaware of the dangers all around. Life is,

truly, a wonder to behold.