Hummingbird Wars!

There is something about hummingbirds.

I can honestly say that until recently I had a couple of "was that a hummingbird?!" experiences under my belt in all the time I have spent out of doors these 35 years.

Well.

My parents sent a hummingbird feeder (probably last Christmas?) which we recently hung out in the arbor on the north side of the house. Actually, we hung it about a month ago, but I think it has taken the hummingbird community that long to come to terms with the bright blue bauble. Not that I can blame them...it doesn't look much like a flower to me either. Well, now they've found it, and it takes them collectively no more than 3 days to drain it. We have become a veritable sugar water factory! Look out Coca Cola...

The arbor at is an idyllic space. It has half a dozen very happily flowering hanging plants, a border of lush, dark green, waist-high Boxwoods, two folding chairs, a small table, a stone bench, a floor of brick and crushed stone, and....a hoary old air conditioning unit sticking up out of the ground. Well, nothing's perfect.

We hung the hummingbird feeder in the arbor and watched for quite some time. Finally, I spent a whole morning in the arbor with my camera and was rewarded for my patience with the delightful company of three of these diminutive creatures. Two males doing battle for this very valuable new territory (thus the title of this post) and a female. My favorite thing that I've discovered in these new companions: the anticipation of their arrival is as much the fun as the enjoyment of their company.

Something about these little birds lifts the spirit (even when they are batting at each other with their wings) and I'll be confounded if I can explain just exactly why.

Here comes the first one to check out the scene. He makes a bee-line for the arbor from a quarter mile away, and your eye is drawn by the flash of speed. At the very end of his approach, as he slows to assess the situation, his wings make a "brrrrrr-rup" sound that you almost feel as much as hear.

As he hovers, he makes hardly any sound at all. Flits around, checks things out from several different angles. Tiny little vocalizations: "chitchit..........chit........chit..........chitchit"


Then, blissful contact:


Once he'd had his first drink, he zoomed off to the neighboring crab apple tree to make sure that all was still safe:


Sorry it's so blurry, but this is using my long lens and magnifying the results quite a bit. I was not using a tripod, and as good as my hands are (ahem) you still get some lens shake at that distance.

These next three images needed some adjustment and also a great deal of magnification. They were originally quite backlit...but I liked the effect so I included them.

Approach...

A little closer...


Contact!

And then, just as soon as they'd come, "brrrrrrrrrrrrroooooo" and they were gone, like little green and brown bullets, dwindling to nothing in the distance.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed taking them.

There's something about hummingbirds...