Hummers

To anyone who found this post searching for information on large expensive gas-guzzling vehicles, I just say nyaaaaah. I’m talking about ruby-throated hummingbirds.

We put up our hummingbird feeder last weekend, expecting that the birds would be showing up in Maine pretty soon. Yesterday, May 12, when I started to grind coffee first thing in the morning, there was a hummingbird there at the feeder.

In fact, there were two there many times during the day. Man, they are territorial little guys. Much of the day we would glance over and notice a bird on the feeder, quickly but nervously chowing down. Several times, though, we saw a blur zoom past the window a couple of inches above the feeder as another hummingbird would chase the feeding one away, or two hummingbirds dash past in pursuit of each other. Unfortunately we couldn’t see any distinguishing marks on either of them to know if there was one dominant bird.

Published by deanb

male born 1944 mathematician by training, software engineer by profession; retired since Labor Day 2013 birder, cyclist, unicyclist, eraser carver, knitter when possible