Last week, we looked out our living room window and noticed a hummingbird hovering on the other side of the glass glaring inside at us. He seemed to be saying, "excuse me, but are you EVER going to put the feeders back up?"
After a few of these little hints, last weekend, I dug out our two hummingbird feeders and got them all set up again. We have one on the front porch and one on the back deck. It took the local hummingbirds about 15 minutes to clue in, so there has been a lot of humming lately as they zoom from one side of the house to the other to partake of the bounty.
We have one of those "field guides" for Western birds. Although I’m not much of a "birder" it’s great to have a bird reference along with a pair of binoculars, so you can get a better look at the local avian visitors. Unfortunately, I often find that figuring out what bird you’re are actually looking at is close to impossible because the differences are so subtle. However, we have definitely identified one type of hummingbird that we call Mister Rufus. According to our book, he is a Rufous hummingbird (slasphorus rufus), which are easy to identify because they are the only type of hummer that has a reddish-brown back.
Mister Rufus (or some of his relatives) have been here in past years and they seem to be more aggressive than the other green and black types of hummers who live in our yard. It’s quite a drama really. We can sit in our sun room and watch all the action unfold as Mister Rufus swoops by to annoy the other hummingbirds.
It’s more proof that sometimes it’s good to pay attention to the little things in life 😉