Hummingbirds-Nature’s tiny wonders. Whizzing around with
flights of fancy and stalling out in midair like little helicopters. Whether ruby-throated or not, they are all beautiful mini specimens of nature’s handiwork.
Who cannot absolutely adore hummingbirds?
From what I have witnessed, other hummingbirds, that’s who.
We have several feeders around our house. They’re dangling
off the eaves, our front porch and back deck, one in our maze garden. As if all of our tubular shaped flowers aren't
enough to attract them, I am dedicated to scrubbing out feeders and boiling
water to dissolve sugar about twice a week, or it wouldn't be summer. I've spoiled them and it seems the hummers
don’t like to share-the dominants staking claim on them. Many times as an
innocent makes his approach, another intercepts him and circles around him until
the little one retreats, at which time the aggressor returns to the same spot
in a tree and lays in wait. Like a dog protecting a bone.
I love to watch them at the feeders so close to the house. I
can be right at the window and they hover up and take pause as if looking directly
at me, hopefully saying thanks. So how can such a tiny and possibly grateful
little creature scare me? That sounds
ridiculous. But you come over here and start taking one of the feeders down in
the midst of a hummer duel on who gets the last drop and one comes zipping out
of nowhere right up to your face and see what you do. Without a window as a
shield, you will find yourself eye to beak, and I wager your heart may skip a
beat too. Tell me you wouldn't cringe or at least flinch thinking they are
going to take that toothpick spike of a beak and make a move to stab you right
in the eye! With wings beating faster than a good camera’s shutter speed can
capture, my reflexes would never win against a dart toward me. On more than one
occasion, I just close my eyes tightly until I am brave enough to open one eye
hoping it has gone. I pray the eye I open is not the one he’s poised to pierce!
The hummer dance sometimes includes as many as five whirling
around. Is that endearing chirpy sound they make actually them swearing at each
other in hummer-speak when one has claimed dibs and the others try to stake a
claim to it too? It’s fascinating to watch. We float quietly in our pool
watching them like an outdoor movie. “Stop and smell the roses” has nothing on stop and watch the hummingbirds.
These little mini bundles of energy seem so tough during
this continuous fight and flight. But we see another, weaker side of our
hummers. A few times a month one will fly into our open garage, and having a
minuscule brain, can’t figure out how to get back out. They bash their heads
repeatedly into the high ceiling or the window. I’m sure they can’t understand
why they are stuck, feeling like they are in Stephen King’s Dome. We fashioned
a butterfly net on a long pole to catch them and lower them out the door.
On occasion, by the time we go out there and see them, they
are so exhausted from battling our ceiling they've actually dropped to the
floor and collapsed, wings splayed out. The three of us have each had the
opportunity to pick up these exhausted and depleted hummers. Holding them, we stick
their potential eye piercing dagger beak into some sugar water to replenish
them while walking out to the driveway. I
figure I am safe with them in this state, gently holding them until they
recoup.
Once they revive and collect themselves, they tighten up their
wings and off from our hands they’ll fly. Like our hands are their helipads.
They return to their lives of fight in flight.
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