Saturday, November 17, 2012

Humble Pie


If I were a hummingbird migrating South for winter, say wanting to go South from Florida, I would totally check out Puerto Rico this time of year. Last weekend as I was walking up the road collecting plants in my press I noticed many flowers were tubular in form and red in color. Whilst merrily strolling and collecting, two small birds swooped to a nearby, overhead branch. The playful birds jumped back and forth through the varying strata of the hibiscus tree's crown, chirping happily as I watched. I stepped lightly towards the tree overhanging the road, as to not alarm, in attempt to glimpse these darting little buggers. Unexpectedly, one bird perched on a branch only 20 feet away at which time I was able to make out an emerald green body, red throat, and long beak. Now I am no ornithologist, but those characters match nicely with hummingbirds I've seen.

Hummingbird? (center of picture)

Hummingbirds? Tubular, red flowers? Duh! It fits so nicely. Hummingbirds are migrating south for the winter and they arrive in PR just in time for the tubular red flowers blooming. 
Neorudolphia volubilis

After leaving the blithe birds to their affairs and continuing on my own blissful botanical promenade, I savored my astuteness for taking two observations, random pieces of the ecological puzzle, and fitting them together so soundly. 'Over the course of millennia, hummingbirds have selected for those flowers blooming in fall,' I thought.  'How marvelous! I'm a scientist!' I reassured, myself. 
Ipomoea sp.

Continuing to appreciate my surroundings, I climbed to the top of a Buchenavia tetraphylla, a separate topic of discovery, before returning the way I came. I passed some blooming Impoea sitting in a Callophyllum calaba: Supporting evidence that the abundance of red flowers, surely correlates to presence of the hummingbirds.  The hummingbirds were long gone by the time I reached the hibiscus they were perched in. Further down the road collected some hibiscus flowers to replace the previous collection destroyed by mold. Close by I spotted a large Clusea rosea flowering and decided to scramble up the steep uphill road embankment in sandals immediately after a downpour. Needless to say, it was a muddy blunder. The ferns covering the embankment had prickles, too. During the brief ascent, I was thankful for Puerto Rico's lack of poisonous snakes and insects, otherwise my body would have likely been found in an embarrassingly conspicuous lump next to the road. As it happens, I retrieved a Clusia specimen and uneventfully arrived back at the field station.

Hoping to impress one of my fellow volunteers with a picture of the hummingbird mentioned earlier, I hastily uploaded the digital images of my excursion.

Ravenia urbanii

"Hey Gordon, the image is sort of poor quality, but check out this picture of a hummingbird I saw on my walk. Do you know what kind it is?"

I began to turn my computer around so he could view the photo, identify the species of hummingbird, whereupon I would divulge my splendid observation and conclusion.

"That's not a hummingbird. It's a tody," said Gordon with all the tact of a teacher to their kindergarten student.

Hirtella rugosa (I've witnessed hummingbirds visit these flowers)

Like I said, I'm no ornithologist. Of course, the tody had been mentioned by everyone I work with at least once, yet I assumed it to be something completely different. Based on this assumption, I synthesized an explanation out relatively little information and my ignorance got the better of me. My idea was completely drained of merit after Seth, a recent masters student, mentioned he was pretty sure migrating hummingbirds don’t really stop at Puerto Rico.

Clusia rosea
After checking in a couple bird books, I was comforted to know the emerald-throated hummingbird does migrate to the northern Bahamas and Puerto Rico, albeit rarely. If mid October does have significantly higher number of plants with red tubular blooms, it is not likely connected to the southern migration of hummingbirds. If it weren’t for a healthy helping of humble pie now and then, the Sun could still be orbiting a 7,000 year old Earth that never hosted dinosaurs.