... Ian Fleming sat down at the bullet-wood desk in his bungalow on the north shore of Jamaica to write his first 007 novel.

   Near his desk sat a copy of Birds of the West Indies, by a Philadelphia ornithologist named James Bond.

   Fleming called his place "Goldeneye" (above). He would call his spy thriller Casino Royale.

    Next Friday: A hummingbird dear to Ian Fleming's heart.

   (Photo courtesy of Island Outpost.)

Jim Bond died on Valentine's Day, 1989, after a long bout with cancer. He was 89.

His ashes are buried next to his wife Mary's in a cemetery in Lower Gwynedd Township, not far from his childhood home outside of Philadelphia.

Their ashes are buried near the graves of Jim’s mother, brother and sister.

The church’s altar has an exquisite stained-glass window (below) donated by Bond’s father in memory of Bond’s mother.

The window, of a Resurrection scene, was made by Clayton & Bell of London, who also designed several windows for Westminster Abbey.

My column this week is about the Bee Hummingbird, the smallest hummingbird in the world.It was one of the many star attractions of James Bond's Birds of the West Indies, I saw earlier several this winter on a trip to Cuba with the Caribbean Conservation Trust. With a terrific photo by Kevin Watson.  (Thanks, Kevin!)