On a recent late June day I escaped to the center of a six or eight-acre woods near my house. I found a familiar large flat rock and settled in for a nice sit. The rock is also big enough and smooth enough that it is quite suitable for laying, too.

I was a bit startled when a hummingbird appeared. My thoughts were what is he doing in the middle of a woods? Why isn't he out chasing some blooming tubular flower or feasting at a man-made feeder somewhere in the sunshine?

Closer inspection revealed that he was diligently working a rather tall, scrawny sassafras that also seemed to be lost. Sassafras are interesting trees that normally are found on fencerows and the expanding edges of woods.

Recently, I have spotted that one has appeared in a shrub border near my house. It's at a dumb place for even a small tree but since I have failed with several transplanting attempts, I will learn to live with it where Mother Nature plopped it.

Sassafras are the trees with the three different shaped leaves, irregular branching, green young stems, good fall color and late summer berries that the birds swarm to.

Even with binoculars I could not detect what was attracting the actively-working bird and there were no limbs within reach.

One has to extrapolate that if there are berries there have to be flowers. Although I could not see them it must have been sassafras bloom time.

In early May my wife spotted our first hummingbird at a fuchsia hanging basket. It was at least a week later that I was in a state of near dose in a chair near a pot of blue salvia when I was startled by a buzzing in my ear. I was having a face-to-face encounter with a male ruby-throat hummingbird.

Ruby throats are our common hummingbirds. We occasionally see one or two other species during the migration season. Normally, they are in the southwest and south into the tropics. I haven't figured out why a bird from the west coast would head for Central America by way of the east coast. Some suggest there is more food on the route less traveled.

A paragraph ago (and before, I hope) I debunked the theory that only red brings hummingbirds. They may favor red, or can find it better, but they will work any nectar-laden tubular flower with their long bills.

Last week I muttered about the growing trees in my yard becoming unfriendly to my head as I mowed the lawn. There is this rather small, sunny spot between the house and one of those trees.

From the kitchen window or the porch stoop I can envision a bed of salvia, agastache and other hummingbird favorites, the feeder my son and daughter-in-law got me for Christmas, and zillions of hummingbirds.

All I need is time and the energy to get off a chair or my favorite rock and do it.