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| A Day in the Life of an American Hummingbird |
| A Research Project conducted by the members of the |
| SENIOR EDITOR: Wigi |
| National Hummingbird Month is a good excuse for the members of our club to come together and make something concrete to share with the world. It is an excuse because much of what we all did this month is nothing more than we would have done anyway. However, we have taken the opportunity to put it all in one place, for us to share amongst ourselves, and also with our friends on the Internet. The result of our efforts is this set of web pages; a collection of our members art, photographs, writing and research about hummingbirds. Just as reading about the accomplishments of Michael Jordan or Britney Spears doesn't tell us much about our friends and neighbors, neither does knowing which species of hummingbird migrates the farthest tell us much about the hummingbird that we just saw in our back yard. To understand our neighbors and to understand our hummingbirds is to understand the typical. Photojournalists have taken to the idea of doing 'Day in the |
| Life' studies, because rather than showing us the exceptional, they show us the mundane. It is in what we do every day that we understand our neighbors and friends and ultimately ourselves. Our club believes that the same can be said of knowing our hummingbirds, and by knowing our visiting hummingbirds, we get insight into ourselves, too. |
| Our web pages are divided into three sections: literature, visual arts and science. I would suggest that you should take these sections as parts of a larger whole, rather than as stand-alone pieces. To me, the literature and visual arts sections are as much scientific as any of our studies. Similarly, our scientific sections are as much art as any drawing, poem, story or photograph. To write a story or a poem about hummingbirds requires a thorough knowledge of the habits and actions of the birds; a knowledge gained through observation, research and study. The writer crafts his or her art from their personal experience, and that writing is meaningful to others because they have also researched and observed and studied hummingbirds on their own. The writer's craft is meaningful because it resonates with the reader's experiences. Similarly, the artist or photographer chooses the media of his or her work based on what media captures the essence of the object of study. At the same time, the traditional scientific approach and the research and results that come from that effort are a reflection of what is meaningful and important to the researcher. While the artist might ask 'How did |
| God create such a bird as beautiful as a hummingbird?' the scientist might also ask 'How did God create such a magnificient flying machine as a hummingbird?' More importantly, the artist and the scientist share even more, because much of the hummingbird's beauty may well come from its spectacular flying skills, and the magnificience of the flying machine may come from its inherent aesthetic beauty. |
| We hope that you find much to enjoy within our pages. This has been a spectacular month for our club, and we hope that we've been able to capture for you the two most important lessons that we have learned about our hummingbirds, and ourselves. Tomorow will be different. Tomorrow will be the same. |
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| LITERATURE SECTION Editor: Gene & Lizz |
| SCIENCE SECTION Editor: Wigi |
| VISUAL ARTS SECTION Editor: Misty |
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