The PhotoHunt theme this week is “Balanced”

Two weekends ago, it was absofreakinglutely freezing here. In Miami, of all places!

My cats were indoors, the plants were as protected as we could arrange. I did worry a little about the birds who visit the feeders in my backyard, but most of all I worried about the little hummingbird who’s been a guest in and around my yard since November. I woke up that Saturday morning to see this:

Poor little guy sat there for what seemed like forever, balanced on the hummingbird feeder, without moving. After a few minutes, he started to move his head around, and began to feed. Normally, I never see him at the feeders, but this seems to be the day he discovered them. Even the hummingbirds decided it was better to not have to work so hard for their food, and the feeders gave him the most bang for his buck. Or bill. Whatever.

After awhile, I was relieved to see him fly up to balance on the telephone wire. I didn’t notice till I started editing these photos, that he seems to be picking at something up there.

If you look very closely, you can see that he has a bit of spiderweb in his beak – and no doubt a spider along with it. Hummingbirds don’t survive on nectar and sugar water all day. They require protein, too, and it usually comes in the form of tiny spiders and insects.

I came to realize that the little guy must have just been groggy – coming out of torpor, a state in which the hummingbird lowers his body functions and goes into a kind of short hibernation, in order to avoid having to feed at night, or in order to survive cold.

Heck of a balancing act, eh?