I saw a hummingbird

A few days ago, I saw a hummingbird on my back deck. It just flew up, stared at me for a moment, and then darted off again. I wonder if the former tenant fed them. I'm going to start feeding them, I think, especially since I know they are indeed in the area. I know a lady who said she put up a feeder for a year in urban Chapel Hill and never saw one. Maybe I will also plant some flowers they especially like.

Working as I know do as a feild ecologist of sorts for out mosquito contol program here, I've observed at what I had always more or less known: that in the countryside, birds and bats basically nullify many airbourne pests. Certainly not all (see: horseflies), but many of the smaller ones.

I had read somewhere how hummingbirds ate huge amounts of flying invertebrates, and I looked it up via google:
http://www.nectarartprints.com/hb_food.htm

One thing that especially fascinated me when I first learned it (after graduating college, during my Oklahoma days) is that hummingbirds are unique to the Americas. When Europeons first saw them, during colonial times, I can only image their astonishment. Question: what do hurricanes and hummingbirds have in common? I mean BESIDES the letter H. Haha.
I've had a few friends from the Old World, born and raised. One Russian friend I knew was telling me about the first time she saw a humminbird, and my friend from China had never yet seen one. I wonder if he has now...I should ask him.

I also found this recipe for "hummingbird nectar" to put in a hummingbird feeder.