Hummingbird Hike

Saturday morning, the Memphis Outdoor Adventures group went on a "Hummingbird hike" down in Holly Springs, MS. Even though it's still August in Memphis, the day wasn't too hot and there was a nice breeze. 13 of us wandered around the Strawberry Plains Audubon Center for a couple of hours, including a stop at an Antebellum mansion that burned down and got rebuilt in the 60's.

Even though the hummingbird migrations won't really get started for several more days yet, we saw a small swarm of them at the feeder stations near the mansion, and I even managed to get a few decent photos of them. In fact, one photo of mine is the one the webmaster used as the main photo for this hike on their Photos page. Several people uploaded photos from the hike, but the only person who uploaded more than me is one of the hike organizers.

It's odd to stand there among them and have them zipping around you. If you've never experienced it, their wings beat so fast that they really do make a humming noise as they fly. I'm always surprised that the pitch isn't higher than it is, even though I know intellectually why that's so.

There was a Mushroom Hike scheduled for the afternoon, but I decided not to stick around for that one. Maybe next time! :-)

Monday with sinuses

I hate my sinuses -- see icon. 8-(

( Rambling about sinuses, season Elements, etc. Feel free to skip )