It was still hot at 6:30 a.m. on
Independence Day, which was not surprising after weeks of hot weather. It
wasn’t just temperatures in the high 80s that made it uncomfortable walking the
dogs, but the humidity felt much higher than the official 15%. Maybe it was the
dark cloud cover that seemed to promise rain, but didn’t deliver, that made it
seem that way.
I may not
have liked the weather, but the hummingbirds were having a grand old time fly
catching. As I walked up the sidewalk to my front door I saw a hummer whiz by
me. He was flying up into the air and then hovering in place for a second
before he landed on the closest convenient branch. Obviously he was going after
those delicious tiny flying insects that provide him with his needed nutrients.
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| Resting on the Bank's rose bush after eating insects |
I knew the
flying insect population was large. When I went out on my back patio before
daybreak I was accosted by dozens of insects that collected around the light.
Finally, in desperation, I went in and closed the door. Not only were there the
usual gnats, but the ants are swarming right now as well. When ants swarm the
females fly out of the ant hill, accompanied by the much smaller males. I have
seen hundreds of them flying, sometimes quite high in the air. I am sure the
hummingbird was enjoying eating them. He certainly was doing his part to reduce
the ant population.
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| Immature male feeds at the east-side feeder |
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| Back at the Bank's rose, the Costa's male preens his feathers. |
As I
watched he changed his perch from the Bank’s rose bush that hangs over my
neighbor’s wall, to the Texas
sage that grows next to my kitchen window. While he was at the Texas sage another adult
Costa’s hummingbird came up to him. Much to my surprise, there was no quick
flight to chase him away. On the contrary, the two did a face-to-face dance in
the air, then sat on adjacent branches. Before I could get a picture of the two
together, one of them flew away. The other stayed for a short time before he
too went off looking for more food.
In the
meantime, a hummingbird landed at the east-side feeder (I put it up this spring
so I can watch birds while I’m in the kitchen.) I snapped a picture, only to
find when I looked at it closely, this was a totally different bird! The other
two were adult Costa’s males; this was an immature male, although I wouldn’t be
surprised if it were also a Costa’s.
I don’t
know why the proximity of other hummers did not result in a major chase scene,
after all, I still see it happen enough at the feeders. Maybe it was the
abundance of feed in the form of insects and the excitement of the hunt that
was more interesting than chasing away rivals. Later in the day I heard the
familiar chatter of chasing hummers, so it was merely a temporary truce.
The hummer
did stop his feeding to take care of his morning preening. Of course he has to
look his best to be in the proper form to chase away all comers!
