a day at reflection

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Thank you to Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center for inviting me to speak at their annual Fall Plant Sale. 

Located in Chattanooga, the environmental education site is as picturesque as the name suggests. My topic came straight out of my third UT Press book Ephemeral by Nature. The here one minute and gone the next behavior of ruby-throated hummingbirds make the 4-ounce dynamos highly ephemeral. And at the time of the festival, they were still humming from one feeder to the next. 

But today they are almost all gone. Risking a migration across the open water of the Gulf of Mexico, a non-stop flight of up to 500 miles that can take roughly 18 to 22 hours. How is that even possible? Each hummingbird flies solo to Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua or one of their other winter homes. And even there they are here and gone. Hummingbirds are the epitome of ephemeral.

If you are looking for a miracle in motion, look no farther. 

Also thank you to festival volunteer and friend Chris Mahoney for working out the details of my visit and to the nature center's Corey Hagen and Taylor Berry for their hospitality.

Hummingbird photo by Wayne Mallenger.

Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center in Chattanooga.

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