Hummingbirds

[eve_prime]

Yesterday I learned about hummingbird courtship! A male was sitting up at the top of an elderberry bush, and every minute or so he would announce "THWOK" - so much more loudly than I'd imagine coming from that small body. Each time he did so, I heard a much softer voice behind me, "Doodily deedily doddily, doodily doddily." After three rounds of this, the female (for it was she) relocated herself between me and the male, about 12' away from him, atop another elderberry bush. Once she did this, he fell quiet. She sat there facing him, leaning towards him, her tongue extended, her much quieter song persisting, "Doodily deedily doddily, doodily doddily." For more than five minutes, they sat like that, the male ignoring her, the female yearning toward him. Finally he took off and darted toward her, and she toward him, and they swooped away together.