A Conspiracy of Hummingbirds
(an essay)
This morning, in my garden, I was rehanging a freshly filled hummingbird feeder when I was buzzed by three crows, followed shortly after by a hummingbird. The hummingbird was not a surprise. The crows, flying so low together, were.
Ever since I hung up a hummingbird feeder in my backyard garden a few years ago, I have been visited with a steady group of those little, furious birds.
The initial feeder that I put out was not enough, as one stout little fellow began to defend it as his own. He would sit on a nearby branch and chase off any near-do-wells who attempted his feeder. Before too long, the sugar water in the feeder fermented. Silly little fellow couldn’t take in the whole thing by himself.
To combat this combative creature, I installed a second feeder some 20 feet away. Thus began the Hummingbird Wars.
Watching the battle scenes in a 3-D movie, like Star Wars, is the closest comparison. Except that you would be the planet all those high-speed space craft was zooming past.
In the time I’ve been exposed to the fantastic aeronautics of the hummingbird, I’ve learned that these birds are combative, fearless, demanding, and just plain mean. They are also beautiful and amazing.
[Read more by downloading the PDF below]
(an essay)
This morning, in my garden, I was rehanging a freshly filled hummingbird feeder when I was buzzed by three crows, followed shortly after by a hummingbird. The hummingbird was not a surprise. The crows, flying so low together, were.
Ever since I hung up a hummingbird feeder in my backyard garden a few years ago, I have been visited with a steady group of those little, furious birds.
The initial feeder that I put out was not enough, as one stout little fellow began to defend it as his own. He would sit on a nearby branch and chase off any near-do-wells who attempted his feeder. Before too long, the sugar water in the feeder fermented. Silly little fellow couldn’t take in the whole thing by himself.
To combat this combative creature, I installed a second feeder some 20 feet away. Thus began the Hummingbird Wars.
Watching the battle scenes in a 3-D movie, like Star Wars, is the closest comparison. Except that you would be the planet all those high-speed space craft was zooming past.
In the time I’ve been exposed to the fantastic aeronautics of the hummingbird, I’ve learned that these birds are combative, fearless, demanding, and just plain mean. They are also beautiful and amazing.
[Read more by downloading the PDF below]
| a_conspiracy_of_hummingbirds.pdf |
