Just a few dozen yards below the summit of Garfield Peak I was startled by a sudden swoosh and a shrill note as a streak went by only a few feet in front of my head. I had just finished planting a flower marker sign on the trail to the top of Garfield Peak. It was Monday, August 16, at about 4:20 p.m.

I kept on hiking and once again - zoom - right in front of me swished the small blurred object! I watched as it arched into the air, turned and headed straight for me. This male hummingbird began a series of plunges from 40 or 50 feet up, emitting a sharp note at the bottom of the arc as he passed.

In early spring in Southern California I had watched and heard, on several occasions, the courtship flight of the male Anna hummingbird. He zooms high above the female and then darts down in an arc, making an explosive sound directly over her. But here I was near a mountaintop in the middle of August, very late in the season for any display of territorial behavior, and I have yet to be told I resemble a female hummingbird!

This kept up for about three minutes. Each zoom caused me to duck, even though I realized that the small object was only a tiny bird headed in my direction. Then he disappeared. I feel fairly certain that he was a rufous hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus (Gmelin). I wonder what he took me for?

Rufous Hummingbird
From Kodachrome by Welles & Welles