Page 12 - Martin Downs Bulletin - June '21

Page 12, Martin Downs

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

CARRIE LAVARGNA
CARRIE LAVARGNA
Accredited Estate Planner (AEP)
Board Certified
Real Estate Attorney
REAL ESTATE
We provide quality, personal legal services to individuals and
businesses in Martin and St. Lucie Counties and
throughout the Treasure Coast.
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If you rent commercial o ce, retail, or warehouse space, Florida sales tax rate to use
commercial real property decreases to 5.7% on January 1, 2019. The local discretionary

sale surtax still applies. This decrease does not apply to parking or storage of motor
vehicles, docking or storage of boats or tie-down or storage of aircraft.