Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

Three hours after I hung my first hummingbird feeder on April 27, 2007, I had a visitor. I can’t describe the excitement I felt that day. They had already arrived about a month prior, so I was very late with my offering. I will not be late this year. They’ve been reported in south Georgia and Alabama this week, so they’re due here in about two weeks, barring complications with the weather.

For all of my non-birding friends who read this blog, this info is for YOU. Read on...

During the next five months, my two feeders had wild activity. I remember the heat of the summer, the constant filling of the feeders with fresh nectar, and the joy it gave me. This year I’ll have three feeders (or more).

Walking through squeaky hummingbirds of fifteen at a time, I sometimes had to duck to avoid their flight patterns.

After a while, I understood what certain speedy dashes of flight meant. When aggressive and territorial, they buzzed in a horizontal U or would swing up and down like a pendulum to ward off intruders. None of this had to do with courtship or mating, I learned later.

At the risk of sounding simple-mined, I can hardly comprehend their strength and instinct.

In January and February, these tiny, power-packed avian creatures left the Yucatan one day at dusk, headed north for a five hundred mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico and landed somewhere between Texas and Florida...if nothing went awry. Their flight could have been twenty-two hours long, more or less. Is that wild, or what?

They travel northward up to twenty miles a day and many of the adults return to the same feeders and nests they occupied the previous spring and summer.

More simple-mindedness…

Us adults are intelligent enough to help make the world go round. But why can’t I follow directions on MapQuest to an across-town destination without getting lost? Hmmmmpf.

A slightly battered female stopped here for a re-fueling and rest on her journey south, taken on October 5, 2007. My last photo of the year.

I know they might be late arriving here this spring. But if they don’t show up at all, ya’ll will hear me cry and moan about the loss of my little green gems...

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I anticipate a break in blogging for a little while. Staring at a computer monitor all day at work and for a few hours at night is getting old and I need a little break. I’ll be outdoors in the evenings, enjoying the longer days and the beginning of Spring, instead. Maybe I’ll clean out some closets inside the house, too. Maybe I'll have some good post ideas and cook'em up! But if I find a Great Blue Heron standing in my pond tomorrow, you’ll hear about it!

Enjoy the beginnings of Spring :o) (Ironically, I'm sitting here with a coat on, fireplace going, and it's chilly!)