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Show trailers and a large semi-trailer. Hummingbirds and Nonsense . . . By W. D. McArthur Where he came from or where he is going is a mystery to me, but he is a welcome sight as he measures the red syrup in the glass bowl each morning and evening. He is a "loner". He arrived by himself him-self and will probably leave by himself, when the notion strikes him or is it instinct that tells a bird that it is time to travel on. Weeks ago the last of the swarms of gorgeously-hued hummingbirds left our small plot of land for other regions and our neighbors took in their feeders for the winter season, thinking that the hummingbird migration had begun and as after a few days it became apparent they had left. I was leaving for a few days on a trip and consequently did not have time to do as my neighbors when they unhooked, un-hooked, emptied and washed their feeders, carefully packing pack-ing them away for next years invasion. I left mine hanging in the trees where they had been carefully placed in order for my wife and I to sit on the davenport in the living room while resting and observing the wonderful carefree, graceful grace-ful movements of the birds who seem to defy gravity as they literally stand still in air. We were gone for only five days but during that short period of time none of the birds had been observed. My neighbor, Bonnie, was packing her feeders away for the winter in belief that the last of the hummers had left and I was tempted to do the same as I sat on the front steps and watched her. Gathering cumulus cumu-lus white clouds, high in the blue clear sky seemed to tell of approaching storms, attracting my attention as they floated by, warning of the end of summer and the approach of fall. I, however, procrastinated, procrastinat-ed, filled with apathy at the prospect of. packing the feeders feed-ers away, thinking to myself that maybe, just maybe, it was possible for a few stray birds to wander by on their way to whereever they go each winter. Was it possible, I wondered, for a few stray birds to fly by on their journey and be hungry; and if so, would they stop to sip from the rich red nectar? I had read that every fifteen minutes it is a need for these hummers to feed, that they burn up all their energy as they soar and dart about in play and mating. Late August our feeders were honored by swarms of hummingbirds, making us wonder where they came from and also forcing me to fill the feeders as often as 4 times a day. (The feeders hold a pint.) I never complained as I mixed sugar with water on an 8 to 1 basis and poured in red food coloring with the knowledge that any bright color would do as well. The birds were attracted by the red coloring of the feeders and even when no coloring at all was added the birds sipped or hummed happily as they fed. Once when I ran out of red I tried green and found that it was as attractive. We also noticed that rain excited the birds into soaring at great heights and suddenly falling only to stop in midair near the feeders. Usually one bird would try to keep a feeder to himself, during the summer, perched on a twig or somewhere close he would watch the feeder and woe be the intruder who tried to feed from it. The intruder would find himself being dive bombed and would dart away with the "owner" close behind and after a few seconds the "Twiggy" as we called the Owner would return to guard his feeding ground. We loved to watch some hummers as they flew in circles or parabolic swings a few feet from the ground, back and forth they flew for minutes at a time, mostly by themselves them-selves but -at other times joined by another. We watched sometimes in agonized agon-ized anticipation when the birds in their flight flew too close to a watching cat who swatted at them in their flight, that the cat would catch them but the speed with which the birds flew precluded any possibility of it. This last wayfarer, alone, has been in our yard for the past 3 days but may have left as we did not see him last night or this morning. While here, he flew up and down in a vertical line eyeing the remaining re-maining fluid in the glass, causing us to wonder if he was trying to determine how much longer it would last. He never appeared during the daylight hours, feeding only before dawn and in the gathering gloom of night. Is he the same one or did he leave and other loners take his place as they wend their way to the place whre the others have gone before? If so, why is only the one feeder used? The one with the perches and not the others hanging in plain sight. These are mysteries and while not of great concern are nevertheless worthy of consideration consid-eration as we say-Goodbye Hummingbirds. |