Belize. Costa Rica. El Salvador. Guatemala. Nicaragua. Honduras. Southern Mexico east to the Yucatán Peninsula.
Warm and tropical. Lots of flowers. This week's temperatures in Belize are forecasted to be highs in the mid-80s, lows mid-70s. Balmy. Pretty much the same in Honduras and throughout the rest of Central America.
Paradise in December.
That is where most all of the ruby-throated hummingbirds are now. Sipping nectar in the tropics. Belizean mai tais, or perhaps a local banana wine. Belize alone has more than 4,000 species of flowering plants.
We look at our empty sugar-water feeders, our wilted salvia, our pineapple sages yellowed by recent freezes, and dream of next April when our little spitfires return. Well, actually, they are not "our" hummers. They are tropical birds that just fly north to find competition-free space to raise their families.
But before they get here, they will have to fly non-stop the 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Should we take a bus and go get them?
I smell a road-trip!
Amazing hummingbird in Tennessee photo by Wayne Mallinger
•
No comments:
Post a Comment