A tiny bird about the size of one’s little finger spent the morning looking at flowers. He wasn’t admiring their beauty, or even their fragrance. He was most interested in the taste treat he could find hidden inside the bloom. He was perfectly designed for his mission. He was sleek in build and had a long narrow beak, just right to slip into the deep throat of a trumpet honeysuckle. His tongue was evidently made to suck the nectar from a flower like sipping soda through a straw.

Perhaps the colorful little bird had been luckless in finding his favorite flowers in his morning quest. Why else would he be attracted by a small bed of impatiens? They were of bright color and maybe he was not familiar with that flower. Despite the person sitting only a yard away from the flowers, the bird came close to examine the find.

There was no reason for a bird to be shy in the presence of a person. He had never been attacked by one. Besides that, a person moved much too slowly to catch him. He was of the perfect aerodynamic species. No other creature could maneuver so well. He could fly forward, backward, sideways, straight up or down, or hover like a balloon. The person would perceive him as one that could reverse directions without stopping and one that could stop without first slowing down.

The impatiens resided beside a porch where the person sat. A wrought iron banister enclosed the porch.  An industrious spider had carefully selected a website at a corner of the banister, then spun a finely meshed web there.

The humming bird tested a blossom, hovering motionless except for the buzz of his wings. He backed up and tried another, and another until he had visited a dozen or so. He was about to buzz off in search of more productive flowers when he spied the spider’s work. He examined the web carefully and found many gnats imprisoned in it. He hovered near the web, eased forward and stole one of the spider’s catch. He backed off and savored the tidbit. The sample must have pleased him, for he repeated his performance again and again until he had robbed the spider of his entire catch. He checked the web to be sure there was nothing left, then in a twinkling of an eye he was gone, satisfied with his loot.  The spider, however, was left with nothing. What was he to do except to get busy and repair his bare snare and wait in his lair?