Page 20 - Abacoa Community News - June '21

Page 20, Abacoa
Book Review

The Hummingbirds’ Gift:

Wonder, Beauty, And Renewal
On Wings

By Nils A. Shapiro

How Does One Describe
Perfection?
I sensed it the moment I
came across this small (5-
1/8” x 7-1/4”), “keepsake”-
size, slender book with its
elegantly designed cover
– a volume so perfectly
suited to its subject: the
jewels of the skies, the
tiniest birds in the world.
And when I
noted the name Sy shuttle as it screams down through the atmosphere at 207 interested in these unique birds, when she met a dedicated
Montgomery – the body lengths per second. woman, Brenda Sherburn La Belle, who is associated with a
aw ard-w inning “Hummingbirds’ wings beat at a rate that makes them California wildlife hospital, WildCare, that has rescued infant
author of more than a blur to human eyes, more than sixty times a second. For and orphaned hummingbirds and raised them until they can
30 books, many of centuries, people deemed hummingbird flight pure magic. be released into the wild. In The Hummingbirds’ Gift, Sy
them international Until the invention of the stroboscope, scientists could not takes us, step by step – complete with color photos – through
bestsellers about the understand how hummingbirds hover. With a flash duration of the rescue and survival of Maya and Zuni, two orphaned
creatures of land, one hundred thousandth of a second, the stroboscope finally hummers, from their naked, featherless first days – a size
sea and sky with revealed the motion of wings that had been too fast for other almost as small as a dime – and what it took to keep them
whom we share cameras to capture.” alive, to the day they entered the skies.
this planet – I knew Try for a moment to imagine a wing beat of 60 times per It is a heartwarming, beautiful story, as only Sy – who
that this was one I second – over and over again, as the hummingbird moves was there to witness this mini-miracle – could describe it
would want to share from flower to flower all day long, hovering over each one for us. One that has motivated my wife, Linda, and me to
with my column’s as it drinks the nectar with its long beak. The energy required hang in our home garden three hummingbird feeders (each
readers. Right then is enormous, which is why hummingbirds have large hearts, with places for five birds to feed at a time), and to have now
and there, I turned and why they must feed every 20 minutes in order to survive. added several flowering “hummingbird” plants from the list
to the jacket’s front And think about this: There are tiny hummingbirds that that Sy has thoughtfully included in the book as being those
flap just intending migrate from Mexico to Alaska, and that cross the entire 500- that attract these wonderful flying jewels.
to find out what the mile span above the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight! Unable We look forward to feeding, and seeing, them. You should
book was about ... to feed at any point across the Gulf, they are near starvation by look forward to reading this book as soon as possible. It is
and, before I realized the end of their flight and must find sustenance immediately. a perfect joy.
it, standing in place I Author Sy Montgomery describes how she first became
had read the author’s
introduction and a
few more pages, and
decided that what I
had already learned
about the remarkable
life of hummingbirds
was alone worth the
price of the book!
I should have
known that, in
Montgomery’s hands, there was so much more to treasure
here. After all, The Boston Globe refers to Montgomery as
“a combination of Indiana Jones and Emily Dickinson,” Window Screens
because of the beautiful writing style in which she describes Family Owned & Operated
her adventuresome experiences. These include being chased Est. 2013
by a silverback gorilla in Africa; hunted by man-eating tigers 561-208-8474 We Measure, Sliding Screen Doors
in India (which was the subject of a National Geographic Make & Install
TV documentary); working in a pit with 8,000 snakes; curlytailscreens.com
being undressed by an orangutan in Borneo; swimming with For You!
piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the Amazon, visiting FREE 10% OFF
with octopuses in the ocean, and more. New Window Screen Order
Readers of this column will remember reviews of ESTIMATES Not valid with other discounts/coupons. Must present coupon during
several of Montgomery’s books, among them: The Soul estimate. Max. Discount: $70. Expires 8/31/2021
of an Octopus (a bestseller in 25 countries); How to Be a
Good Creature; The Magnificent Migration about the vast
wildebeest herds in the Serengeti; and most recently, Condor “Service is our number one priority”
Comeback.
Now, she shifts her focus from the condor – the bird with 561-743-0070
the largest wingspan in North America – to one which, among
its approximately 240 species in the Western hemisphere, www.palmspoolservices.com
has a total body size that can measure just over two inches!
But in so many ways the hummingbird is a miracle of nature
– a fragile, delicate creation consisting of a big heart, nine
internal air pockets, hollow bones, and legs so slender they
have been described as “thread-like.”
Since the shimmering beauty of many hummingbirds is
already legendary, I offer the following brief excerpt as just
one small taste of how much more about these mini-marvels
of the skies awaits you in these pages:
“Alone among birds, they can hover, fly backward, even fly
upside down. For such small birds their speed is astonishing
... a male Allen’s hummingbird, for instance, can dive out
of the sky reaching sixty-one miles per hour, plunging from
fifty feet at a rate of more than sixty feet per second – and
pulling out of his plunge, he experiences more than nine times Expires 6/30/21.
the force of gravity. Adjusted for body length, the Allen’s
is the fastest bird in the world. Diving at 385 body lengths State Licensed & Insured
per second, this hummer beats the peregrine falcon’s dives Serving Palm Beach County CPC # 1457468 • LPG#30099
at 200 body lengths per second – and even bests the space