Hummingbird Update

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Tue 29 Mar 2016 19:36
When we were anchored at Deshaies and stuck on board because of the high wind we regretted not being able to visit the nearby botanical gardens. On our second trip around Guadeloupe from Pointe a Pitre we drove back over to the Death in Paradise filming location and made up for our previous disappointment. The gardens are really interesting and we learnt that 50% of the flowering and grain producing plants on the island are imports. No mention of the cacti or deciduous trees but Captain Bligh gets a mention for delivering the breadfruit. The flowering plants we have seen in the forest and that have evolved with humming birds (Colibri) in mind are Heliconias. As we were admiring some of these in the botanical gardens one of the black humming birds that I had seen on our previous excursion flew in and perched on a small branch close by. In the light it then revealed itself to be the red and blue humming bird seen previously. It turns out that the plumage - black in the shade - comes to life in the sunlight (and the flash of Annie’s camera) with dazzling shades of red, blue and green. We had come across the territory of our little friend and it kept darting off to chase away others in the vicinity or to feed at the heliconias and at the beautiful red artichoke shaped flowers that it transpires come from Malaysia.
So there you have it, all revealed on the flowering plant and hummingbird front………………..