Alone!

It was late in the season of 2010 I believe. All the hummingbirds had left including his mother and sibling. This youngster had free rein of the yard, no one to chase or be chased by. Wherever we worked in the garden, he would sit in a nearby tree and observe. He found companionship in humans and showed very little fear. 
One chilly evening my wife and I sat around the fire, feasting on one of our favourites, smores. We sat there enjoying the the flickering flames, and periodically would look back to see if our little friend was nearby. He couldn't find a perch close enough to enjoy the heat with us, so he sat on a dead branch that reached as far out from the lilac bush as he could find. Eventually he became nothing but a faint shadow in the night. 
The next morning he remained only long enough for me to observe his unusual behavior when he received the memo. He found out it was time to go, and he drank up as much nectar as he could stuff into his already chubby little body. He was about to head into a direction of the unknown. He had no one to lead him, and no clues  into the future, and yet he remained like all the others..."Fearless". 
​Juvenile Male Ruby-throat. N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2010?

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