Hummingbird bathtime

Just in case you aren’t on Facebook, I wanted to share this video with you. I think it is such an amazing thing to witness: a hummingbird taking a bath on a peony leaf! You don’t see that every day, do you?

So here’s how it came about:

A few days ago, my husband Bill and I decided to talk a walk through the garden after breakfast. The sprinklers had just finished running on one of the perennial beds so all of the foliage was wet. Bill went outside first, and just as I was heading out the door, he gestured to me to come quickly but to bring along the camera.

I snagged my trusty Canon and quickly joined him. Bill was pointing to one of our peonies about 10 feet from where we were standing. I could see a Calliope hummingbird hovering over the plant and sipping water from some of the leaves of a nearby delphinium.

Then he started to lie down on a peony leaf and take a bath. Amazing! As I was shooting this video, I’m certain I had a huge smile on my face! You can see that he’s pretty casual about his bath and really took his time. When he finally zipped away, Bill and I looked at each other, absolutely thrilled with what we’d just witnessed!

Since the sprinklers run on that bed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I have to tell you that I headed out there yesterday, with my camera on a tripod, and have waited around after the sprinklers finished running, hoping our hummingbird friend would put on a repeat performance. But no such luck.

I’m hoping to see something like this again, though, so am being very alert out in the garden. I hope you enjoy the video!