Busy Spectacles, Oblivious to Spectator Hummingbirds

Dr. James J. S. Johnson

Purple-throated Carib Hummingbird (Wikipedia image)

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.     (Psalm 90:12)

Two years ago the shoe was “on the other foot”, when I wrote about “Busy Hummingbirds, Oblivious to Spectators”. Yet during the Labor Day weekend, it was I who was the busy “spectacle”, “oblivious” to spectator hummingbirds in my own backyard!

It all started as just another half-day of clean-up in my backyard, in reaction to 4 stormy-weather-caused tree casualties, this year: serious branch tear-offs on 4 different Bradford pear trees. The aftermath involves a lot of branch debris clean-up, for packaging (in yard-trash bags, after my oldest grandson helped trim the arboreal wreckage with his chainsaw) required by the trash pickup service. One of the piles of yard trash was stacked under an oak tree, situated next to an iron rod fence that is heavily draped by a flourishing “thicket” of trumpet vine growth.

Trumpet Vine “wall” (acultivatednest.com image)

In fact, the iron rod fence itself is so enveloped, in the greenery and blossoms of trumpet vines, that the combination of fences and vine-growth resembles a “wall” or curtain of vine growth, green leaves, and bright orange “trumpet” flowers. Next to that fence is a tall and sturdy oak tree, loaded with green leaves.  Then I noticed what initially looked like a thick brownish-green insect buzzing about the fence’s trumpet vine blossoms – but it was no dragonfly or damselfly or moth or butterfly – it was a busy hummingbird! (Later I saw another hummer buzz by the same area, collecting nectar from blossom after blossom of the same thicket of trumpet vine flowers.)

Hummingbird at Trumpet Vine blossom   (Mike Lentz image)

Why had I not noticed that our trumpet vine “patch” was hosting hummingbirds?

Unlike two years ago, this time I was the “oblivious” one – I had busily ignored those hummingbirds (for months, at least), because I was so busy bagging yard rubbish. So, being a true birder, I promptly went inside our house, to fetch my binoculars, so I could observe the hummingbird activities more closely.

Trumpet Vine in backyard by tree (image credit: WhatGrowsHere.com)

The hummers were obtaining nectar, again and again — then they would flit away into the foliage of the nearby oak tree. On closer investigation I was that the trumpet vine had grown out form the fence — and had traveled up the trunk of the oak tree, entwining itself around various oak branches, so that the orange flowers peeked out of the top of the oak tree! Try to imagine a large oak tree, covered in bright green leaves – yet sporting some orange trumpet-shaped flowers near the top of the leaves! (Now I need to research whether the trumpet vine is parasitically detrimental to the oak tree – or whether it will be okay to leave it as it is.)

So much for being a careful spectator of my own backyard! As the serial crises of summer storms recently ravaged our Bradford pear trees, consuming many weekend hours (and a lot of my attention) I had neglected to monitor other developments in my own backyard.  Yet what should I have expected?  After all, hummingbirds — if any were to be found in my backyard — would surely be attracted to the vermillion-red blossoms of the Trumpet Vine.  “All hummingbirds are drawn to the color red, whether in the form of a flower bearing the nectar that accounts for more than half of their dietary intake or in the colorful plastic petals of a sugar-water feeder.”  [Quoting “Hummingbirds and Feeding”, in BIRDS IN YOUR BACKYARD: A BIRD LOVER’S GUIDE TO CREATING A GARDEN SANCTUARY (Birds & Blooms, edited by Robert J. Dolezal, 2009 Readers Digest edition), page 108.]   For video footage of a hummer defending his trumpet vine from bee competitors see  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZfryKJxRd8 .

Maybe that can happen in other aspects of life, too. (Some call this the problem of the “tyranny of the urgent” – where only priorities with hard deadlines get serious attention.)  Maybe getting distracted by the various “in-your-face” crises of life, which frequently crash down here-and-there, in one storm after another, can pull our gaze away from other parts of our own “backyards” — such that this of that vine can silently creep up into a nearby tree (a little bit at a time, week after week, month after month), and we don’t notice it.

Trumpet Vine  (a/k/a Trumpet Creeper) climbing up tree 

Could this habit of being repeatedly distracted (by whatever makes the loudest “noise”) apply to personal Bible study, or personal prayer life, or the forgotten/postponed need for getaway time with one’s husband or wife, or the need to be a vocal witness to an non-Christian friend (or coworker, or relative, or neighbor)?  Sometimes it is important to step back, look up, and regain a big-picture perspective. Life continues to flow quickly by, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. How quickly our lives, like money, are spent!

If you love someone, if you care for someone, tell (and/or show) him or her so – do it today! Don’t wait for a “hard deadline”, because the “tyranny of the urgent” may distract you (or me) from doing those important things that have no exact deadline. Don’t be oblivious (like me) to what is happening (or not happening) right next to you!

Hummingbird at Trumpet Vine (image credit: Harold A. Davis)

Notice the hummingbirds in your own backyard, and treasure the beauty that God is sharing in the process. Notice also when vine are sneaking form one place to another – if they are harmful, take action!

So here is my takeaway prayer:  may I be less oblivious to what is happening in my own backyard – and may I appreciate the beauty that God provides (such as those colorful and quick little hummingbirds, that I didn’t even know were living in my oak tree, enjoying the trumpet vines that drape my fence), each day, as I live out whatever day son earth that I have left to live (before it’s time to go Home).

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

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Busy Hummingbirds, Oblivious to Spectators

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