FICKLE HUMMINGBIRDS

                           

   

THE HUMMINGBIRDS ARE INDEED BACK AT THE FEEDER

Monday, 8:30 AM.  65 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch.  Wind W, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy with high, wispy white clouds, the humidity a relatively low 65% .  It will warm into the high 70's today and tomorrow.  The barometer is at 30.12" of mercury and falling, predicting chances of rain and thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday, then with highs around 70 and partly cloudy skies through next weekend.  It is nice summer weather.
   Hummingbirds are disarmingly charming little creatures, but they are, I am sorry to say, quite fickle.
    I have been feeding them for lo, these many years, the feeder always up on time for their spring arrival, and kept up even after they have obviously left for the season, just to be sure a tardy member of the migration does not go hungry.   And what thanks do I get for my steadfastness? Not much.
   I left the feeder solution become stale, or whatever happens to it, for how long? perhaps a day or two past its prime, and suddenly no hummingbirds!  It was a few weeks ago that I noticed their absence and I immediately (well, almost immediately) washed the feeder and refilled it with fresh solution.  What thanks did I get? A cold shoulder, that's what.
   They left me for some neighbor's feeder, someone who was already feeding a different family of birds, and the warlike little creatures probably had to battle the other birds.
   At any rate, they finally have returned, or perhaps the birds that are buzzing about are youngsters now out on their own.  Anyway, there are an awfully lot of mock battles going on,  Maybe not so mock, although I have seen neither blood nor feathers beneath the feeder.
   Hummingbirds do not always play nice.