My family owns a vacation condo in Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Missouri. We've taken summer vacations down there for the past seven years, ever since we bought it freshly built. It's a pretty cozy place, just a two-bedroom two-bathroom with a really nice great room. My favorite parts are the vaulted ceilings and the bathroom I've claimed, which I got to decorate. Normally, I think animal print is sort of tacky, but my bathroom is all animal print and it's fantastic to say the least. Anyway, I digress.
The past few years we've put out a hummingbird feeder, just for funsies, since our neighbors had one and they seemed to have plenty of visitors. The first couple of years we had it out, we had a visitor every now and then, which was always fun to watch. I never could believe how small they were, either - about as long as your thumb. An acquaintance of ours used to always say hummingbirds were really little aliens that zoom in to take your picture and then leave to report to their mothership. Watch a hummingbird sometime and you'll believe it too - they're pretty nosy and don't seem to mind people too much, although they won't touch you.
This summer, we went to the Ozarks for the hottest week I could ever remember. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable being outside and we were all thankful for the air conditioner. The very last day, Hilary (who always goes with us) and I were finished with all our packing and cleaning, so I decided to go outside and soak up the last few rays for the vacation while watching the hummingbirds.
Apparently, this year our feeder was like prime real estate. Before I went outside to watch, I was peeking out the window at the little aliens, and there were four, five, up to seven hummingbirds crowded around it at a time. Once I went outside, though, a few skittish ones left. I sat down and was pretty still, hoping they would come back once they thought I was a piece of patio furniture. It only took a good minute before we had another taker. This one was smaller than the others, but it had a brilliant orange throat and a shiny emerald back.
As I watched this one, I noticed he was quite territorial. I say "he" because his bright coloring and aggressive behavior made me think so (I'm basing my judgement off of the animal kingdom as a whole, NOT human males). He would sit on one of the feeder's perches and just look around--he wouldn't even eat anything. But as soon as a potential taker would swoop in for a sip, he would chase him away, chirping as if he were chastising them for daring to come that close. Sometimes, he would flit away, but he always was watching from whereever he was, because as soon as another would come, he would come back to chase them. It was really quite amusing.
I watched the hummingbirds for awhile. It may have just been a few minutes, since I could only stand the heat for so long, but all the while it was very entertaining. As I walked away, the aggressive one took a look at me and then darted back into the trees. I'm pretty sure he took my picture to show all his friends just how goofy us American humans look. Yet we must not be too bad, because they sure appreciate our peace offering of sweet nectar.
~Lolly
Song of the Day: Runaway by The Afters--it's on their new CD which JUST came out two days ago!
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