save water. shower with your feathered friends.

[OT from cottage renovations]

it's happened before: when things have been dry for a long time if one takes a hose to water the dogwoods out back the activity will attract birds. 

today's participants were two juvenile cardinals, a chickadee, and to my lasting delight a hummingbird.  she darted in and out of the spray, perched on a twig and did the whole happy dance: shaking her feathers, preening, and arching her back with beak uplifted to catch the falling drops.  one doesn't have to project to understand clearly that she was really enjoying it.  all this was going on not more than a couple of feet beyond arm's reach.  not that I would have grabbed -- far from it -- that's just an indication of how close she was.  it went on for perhaps 10 minutes and I was riveted. 

it's gotten me to wondering whether there might be a way to capture the moment in an image.  camera in one hand and hose in the other is probably well past the redline of my klutz-o-meter but I'm pretty tempted.