Hummer Life

It is truly fascinating to me to watch hummingbirds. We finally have a feeder up this year and have spent several hours outdoors watching them feed and fight and play and feed some more. I would venture to say that we have at least 4 who frequent our feeder, but the information I've been reading says that you can take whatever number you see all at once and multiply it by 4 and that is the number you actually have using your feeder. Wow!

We enjoy especially the evenings, cuz that is when the male is the most territorial. He will swoop down and fight off any other hummer that even comes near 'his' feeder. It's so funny to watch cuz the other hummers don't give up...they just keep coming back for more thumpings from him. :)

Last night I saw 2 females around the feeder and it truly looked like they were dancing with each other. There was one on either side of the 4-sided feeder and they would mirror each others movements. When one would drink, the other would drink from the hole opposite her. When one would go left, the other would follow suit. And so on. Truly amazing.

Yesterday afternoon, I was out on the porch reading a book and the hummers were playing as usual. Well, all of a sudden this one comes extremely close to me and starts flying right behind my book! I just sit there very still, cuz I could feel his wings moving the air across my legs. I also knew that if I moved I might scare him away, and they are very comfortable now with us being around so I didn't want to jeapordize that. Anyway, he flew around me a bit, just looking at me and then abruptly flew away. That's when I realized...the outside cover of my book was bright PINK! He was attracted to my book color, looking for a food source! :)

I did a bit of looking online this morning and wanted to share this link:
http://www.hummingbirds.net/index.html

This page describes much about the type of hummers we have here, the Ruby Throated:
http://www.hummingbirds.net/rubythroated.html

Please take a moment and look at the beautiful creatures. If you have any in your area, get a feeder and then sit back and enjoy them!