Hummingbird Hospitality

We are finding that owning a home comes with a lot of added responsibility.  While renting our responsibility was to pay rent, pay utilities, keep the garden from taking over, and clean on a somewhat regular basis.  Home ownership requires monitoring mortgage payments, taking care of repairs, selecting new carpet or paint, cleaning more square footage, mowing the lawn, keeping the weeds from taking over, landscaping and gardening, furnace, fireplace, and AC maintenance, etc.

One responsibility that wasn't mentioned in the homeowner manual that we got from the home inspector was caring for the birds that live in our backyard.  There was also a sense of duty to these birds that came with buying this house.  The previous owner, before he passed away enjoyed sitting on the back porch listening to KC Royals games and watching the birds come to the feeders.  There are a total of 6 feeders in the backyard that were included with the house and now they are our responsibility.

A few weeks ago I had a patient mention that the hummingbirds were back in the area so we put it on the to-do list to fill the hummingbird feeders.  We hadn't gotten it done when one day I was out on the porch and a brilliant green hummingbird flew up and check each of the four feeding flowers on the feeder and flew off with a very disappointed look since the feeder was bone dry.  I rushed in to inform Arthur of our first hummingbird sighting and that we needed to get some sugar water.  He has taken it upon himself to be in charge of hummingbird hospitality.  He filled up the two feeders with great care and we watched eagerly throughout the week for our guest to return.  Nothing.  We did see an oriole several times stop to get a swig of the sugar water so that provided us with some entertainment.  Arthur's parents were then here for the weekend and his dad was shooting photographs of the birds in the backyard and really wanted some bird to come up to the deck feeder.  But nothing came.

A few days ago Arthur took the feeder down to clean it since sugar water starts growing stuff after awhile and in the hour that the feeder was inside I saw another hummingbird zip by and hover in mid air where the feeder usually is puzzled by the empty space. We missed them again-- what terrible hosts are we.

We finally got some bird seed this weekend to fill the other feeders in the back yard so as I was taking the laundry off the back deck (Side note: This might turn into a blog but we have been experimenting with not using our dry and line drying everything on the back deck.  So far it has been great and we haven't used the drier since moving but the last 2 days with constant rains showers and 100% humidity has put a damper on that this week) I watched a cardinal eat at one feeder and a wren at another.  Then the hummingbird zipped by to the feeder and sat there contently slurping up sugary solution. Finally.  I couldn't wait to tell Arthur.  But in the 20 minutes it has taken to type up this blog I have seen 4 humming birds come to the feed and two more orioles.  We might go through a lot of sugar this summer but in the grand scheme of things a few dollars for 5 pounds of sugar is more enjoyable for a homeowner than 100 bucks to get rid of termites.  Omni Vincit Amor.

This video has some fun footage of hummingbirds and the science being the aerodynmics of hummingbird flight.