The pole out by the pool where we always hung a Boston Fern, (and this year hosted an upside-down tomato for a few doomed days - see Missing Link) has been rehabilitated.
This time, we decided to hang a hummingbird feeder instead of a plant, and it started out as a huge success. Within two hours of installation, the feeder was attracting hummers, often two or more at a time. There seems to be at least two separate species, and the ones we saw at first weren’t particularly colorful, so we decided they were all probably females.
Saturday evening we finally got our first brilliantly colored male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.
He is beautiful, but he defines why you should be careful what you wish for – he is as obnoxious as Hell. The greedy little bastard drinks his fill, then flies up into a nearby tree where he lies in wait to ambush any other bird that approaches the feeder.
I was beginning to think that short of shooting the little bugger or installing a few more feeders we would never see another bird actually dine at our feeder again. Then, this morning, a bird arrived that called his bluff, and I was treated to the most fantastic aerobatics I have ever seen in my life! George Lucas never produced such an epic dogfight.
He is still at it, chasing off another bird every minute or two. I am still not sure what we’re going to do about him.
So funny!.. I just bought a feeder for myself to hang by the pool. I am going to put it out today. I certainly hope I get the same entertainment value out of it that you have received. I had a hummingbird plant last year... which attracted MANY hummers.... but the freeze took it... So now I am dependent upon the feeder. Keep posting the pics. I love it!!!
ReplyDelete