Bouncing Back

I bought a new hummingbird feeder over the weekend (see yesterday's post) and it had an unexpected benefit. The pewter surface where the birds drink out of the "blossoms" reflects light back onto the underside of the hummers beautifully. The old feeder had a copper surface which had lost it's patina. It may have been shiny at one time. It was a gift from a friend more than twenty years ago and I can't remember if it was shiny when it was new.

With the old feeder, I have used white foam core (think heavy-duty poster board) underneath the feeder to try to bounce light up onto the underside of the birds. Working with it was cumbersome, however, and you had to wonder if it bothered the hummingbirds. The new feeder creates wonderful reflected light on the bird's underside which would normally be in shadows.

The bottle isn't cut glass, but the molded glass also does wonderful things with the light. That is especially true when the background is allowed to go dark. It makes all the little contours of the glass stand out.

I'm loving this new feeder! I may have spoken a little too soon about the bees leaving, though.