Juliet in the Sweet Pea Garden

As someone who loves to find the poetic in the everyday, I was thrilled to come upon a delightful scene (which I called, “Romeo and Juliet in the Sweet Pea Garden”) one early morning at a friend’s farm here on Salt Spring Island. At first, a male Rufous Hummingbird was hovering above the female Anna's Hummingbird you see in my photo. I imagined the female to be Juliet looking longingly up at her Romeo and, then, later (in this photo), trying to find her Romeo, who had flown up high. My photographer brother soon shook me out of my reverie when he pronounced that these two sweet hummingbirds were actually rivals and "Juliet" was probably looking up anxiously to make sure "Romeo" wasn't going to attack her as he was exhibiting some very real threat postures—flaring his tail, raising his wings and pointing his bill at "the intruder" like a dagger. So much for my anthropomorphizing my wildlife subjects again. I'm happy to say, though, "Juliet" stood her ground and was able to enjoy a feast of nectar while "Romeo" flew off to "greener pastures"—that is, a bed of Scarlet Honeysuckle!