Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers — a living prismatic gem that changes its colour with every change of position…In its exquisite form, its changeful splendour, its swift motions and intervals of aerial suspension, it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description.
–W.H. Hudson
I was in the garden this morning, enjoying the sunshine and checking the progress of my spring seedlings, when I heard the familiar “zzip, zzip” of a hummingbird flitting around nearby. I looked up and saw him, an iridescent green fellow with a jewel-pink throat, doing an exuberant sunlit dance in midair a few feet away from me.
At first he seemed to be performing solely for my benefit, and a lovely performance it was. Then I realized that he was in the midst of a hovering cloud of gnats, dipping and whirling with elegant grace as he snapped up dozens of the tiny insects. I sat back on my heels and just enjoyed the show, which lasted for a good minute or two before the hummer finally darted off in a brilliant flash of color.
I think Nature likes to indulge in random acts of beauty and joy for the sheer pleasure of it. What other explanation could there be for moments like that?
An Invincible Summer 