Mother Nature does an excellent job to let us know that the seasons are changing in New England.

The biggest hint that she offers is the changing color of the foliage across our region, with little flecks of red and yellow peeking out across a lush green landscape, sometimes as early as late August.

The other hint is the arrival and departure of the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds to the garden.  To me, this cue is more indicative of the transition from winter to summer and summer to winter than the changing trees.

There is always so much anticipation in mid April when the hummingbird sugar water (we call it “Hummingbird Hooch”) feeders go up for the season.  The arrival of the hummingbirds to the garden is a sign that the spring flowers including the lilacs and iris are starting to bloom.

This summer, evenings on the back patio included the ritual of a daily “Hummingbird Watch” from 7:00-8:30pm each evening. It was the same, yet different every night.  Different visitors would join this ritual but conversation would always stop (or at least tone down to a whisper) when the hummingbirds arrived. The males were very active and were the most frequent “hummingbird hooch” consumers during the early part of the summer. (The spectators of these birds would enjoy their own hooch, too!  This summer’s favorite was the Garden Cucumber Cocktail or a refreshing. cold glass of Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.)  Here’s one of my favorite photos from June of a Ruby Thoated male that includes a red weigela in the background.

While being able to capture any photo of a hummingbird is exciting to me (I use a simple point and shoot Canon Powershot Elph310 HS camera), I had a goal after capturing this shot of being able to snap a photo of one of the birds in the garden, getting nectar from one of the many flowers that I’d see them visiting during the day (of course, always when the camera was not in my hand!)

Finally, in early August, as I started to think about the pending departure of the this year’s resident hummingbird residents, a new perennial Cardinal Flower bloomed and attracted female hummingbirds all day long. I finally met my goal by capturing this shot.

For as long as it seems to take for April to arrive each year, without fail, September always comes too quickly.

This year was no exception.  By late August the hummingbirds were ingesting 3x as much sugar water than they consumed between May and July. It was another cue that the summer season was about to change – these tiny powerhouses always need to fuel up before their long flights for their winter vacations in South America.

By Labor day, the male Ruby-Throated birds were gone, headed south (probably to Costa Rica) to claim their winter territories and wait for their mates. By mid-September, the females were gone, too. The feeders are now empty and stored away until April 2015.

It’s time to create a new daily garden ritual.