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Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Saturday, August 11, 2012

Really Angry Birds


I am under no illusion that hummingbirds are angelic.

If you are at all confused as to the true nature of these tiny flyers, I invite you to spend time watching as one particularly feisty male spends every sunlit hour of the day furiously defending "his" feeder, here at our house.

When he is not actively feeding, he hides in wait to zoom in seemingly out of nowhere, all to chase off his fellow hummingbirds.

An identical dynamic sets up year in and year out, though I have no way to know if it is the same male working to defend "his" territory here, or perhaps a succession of possessors.

If there ever was to be a prototypical Angry Bird?  I'll nominate the Hummingbird to take that prize, absence of green pigs notwithstanding.

Further?  If I was having fever dreams and spotted this out my window,  
Angel?  Hardly.
I believe I'd be forgiven if I mistook the silhouette of this little angry bird for some sort of other, more heavenly messenger.


2 comments:

Linda/patchwork said...

We have the same kind here.
Fight, fight, fight!
The Golden Front Woodpeckers get on the feeders, and the hummers divebomb them, too.
I'd love to get a picture of that. But, so far, they just won't pose for me.
Does make me jealous when I see other bloggers showing pix of LOTS of hummers on one feeder....ugh

TexasDeb said...

Ugh, indeed. Linda, I feel your pain. Those shots showing hummingbirds happily clustered around a feeder make me want to throw things at my computer screen, an response I have learned is not altogether helpful.