I sat on the lawn chair outside, in the backyard and remembered that day. Home from college, sipping coffee on that chair. I wore my pajamas, read the paper and looked at the nature around me. The backyard extended from the house about an acre and behind the yard was a small grove of pecan trees. It was summer. the pecans were forming, they would ripen in the fall.
My parents had gone to the shore for the weekend. I watched the house for them. Later I would mow their lawn. I was never the type of girl to have parties while they were gone and they knew that. I was a book worm, a nerd, sorority girls didn't interest me, just nature. I was studying to be a biologist, nature was my wheelhouse.
The cool breeze caressed my legs in the warm sun in this morning. I envied my parents going down to the shore. All the birds and the wildlife, one time at Hilton Head beach we saw an eagle. I had only seen eagles on television before because they nearly became extinct.
My parents hung a hummingbird feeder on the edge of the back porch. Hummingbirds were another bird that was endangered. They would beat their wings so fast, it would take a special camera just to see the black, transparent wings. Thus the name hummingbird, their wings beat so fast they would sound like a hum. The feeder was full of red liquid, which the hummingbirds loved. Wasps gathered around it too. I shewed the wasps away, careful not to get stung.
Then I saw a beautiful hummingbird approach the feeder that day. (I later found out he was a male). He was so special with his black head and long, black beak. His green body, white breast, captivated me immediately. I heard his wings flutter like a muted helicopter as he flew up to the feeder and drank the red, sugar water.
