Encounter/Not a not-a-hummingbird

"Excuse me" said a tiny voice with a tiny flutter. I looked up from my phone. Right in front of me, suspended in the air almost, hung a hummingbird. "OH!" I said, "I've been waiting for you all afternoon, I just looked away for a second to ..."
"Well, it's too late now", the buzzy bird interrupted, with its sweet voice and only a itty bitty hint of indignation, "I have to go south!"
"But, but ... I haven't even gotten a good shot of you yet, not like last year*!" I exclaimed. "Aw" said the hummie, "you'll just have to try again next year".
Then it flew even closer to my face and the buzzing was so loud there was no room for other sounds, or thoughts even. I just stared.
"Thank you for feeding us all summer," it whispered and then, with a quick turn it was behind the hibiscus and gone.

And I cried.








*see one-year-ago thumbnail.

ps. This really happened. Well, almost all of it. And I'm tired of not having photos of the Main Event of the Day so I figured if I can do a drawing once and survive I can do it again.
pps. Ethel update: she has gone underground. She thrashed around in the soil for a few days but it looks like she's undergoing The Change. I'll check in a week or so.
ppps. My nifty fifty appears to have kicked the bucket for realz. Auto focus is shot and manual focus is iffy - and prone to having the lens fall in 2 pieces. Ugh.