The
advance scouts show up every April...usually the 24th...I can set my
calendar by it. By the end of May they’re already starting to bicker
and by July, when the rufous hummers show up, it’s almost like all-out
WAR.
Who
says humans are uniquely violent? It seems to me our hummingbird
cousins exhibit every miserable human trait. I’ve watched the hummer
above chase away every potential visitor to my feeder, though it meant
he never had an opportunity to use the feeder himself. When they do
physical combat, the hummers strike each other in mid-air with such
fury, I can hear the sound of their collision and wonder how either of
them survived the impact.
Still,
in September, they leave their Utah Battleground and go South to
Central America for the winter. Somewhere in Guatamala, perhaps, they
start the wars all over again. And next April, most of them will be
back to fight
another day...JS
Help us
end the slaughter
and save
the whales..
A PSA from The Zephyr