The Birds

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Albino Ruby-throated Hummingbird

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 Editor's Comments:

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Dear Readers,

You may wonder how it is that this bird is identified as a ruby-throated hummingbird when it doesn't have a ruby throat.

Then again, you may not wonder at all. But dollars to pesos, you more than likely have no idea about this vexing anomaly so I am going to tell you anyway.

This particular bird, photographed in Staunton,Virginia, is definitely a ruby-throated hummingbird because in the U.S. of A. they are the only hummingbirds found in the wild east of the Mississippi river.

Now you know.  Aren't you simply thrilled to the core?

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Lately The Editor has become quite the expert on birds.  Living in what was but recently rural Georgia, there are still lots of different types flying around the house at any given time.

Cardinals, finches, robins, hummingbirds, blue jays, catbirds, hawks, blackbirds, meadowlarks, woodpeckers, bluebirds and of course common nuisance birds, sparrows, pigeons, and crows.

I've even seen a couple of hoot owls.  Owls and crows are mortal enemies since there is nothing tastier to a big predator owl than a plump, young and tender, juicy, crow right out of the nest.

While I've eaten crow a couple of times, it wasn't the "down the hatch, lick your chops" kind of crow, so I wouldn't know if a real live crow was tender and juicy or tough as an old combat boot. But owls seem to be quite knowledgeable in this area.

Up here in Deliverance country I've seen flocks of crows protecting their own, circling and harassing lone-wolf owls to death.  Poor old owl...

But I digress...

Sitting out on my deck, I saw so many different kinds of birds that I decided to put up a couple of bird feeders... at least for awhile.

So I trotted off to Lowe's and bought a contraption that looked like a little Japanese castle with sitting pegs sticking out all over. I also bought a plain old Bb hummingbird feeder. A sack of bird seed and a bit of red nectar for the hummers finished off the show and I was in business, ...or so it seemed.

But it wasn't a done deal. Not yet.

I quickly found that I had to put the bird feeder in a place where squirrels couldn't get to it, but hanging it from the soffit over thin air did the trick.

Delighted when my hummingbird feeder attracted several ruby-throated hummingbirds (like I was thinking it'd attract a bald eagle or a chicken hawk or maybe a turkey vulture), I took it down after a gang of Mafia type hummers began guarding the chow hall 24/7 for their own, refusing all other hummingbirds their turn at the feeding trough. This, I could not allow.

I took the bird feeder down too when, try as I may, I couldn't keep red wasps from nesting inside, as they seemed ecstatic at the protection from the elements that they'd just conveniently discovered.

Wasps do good things in the garden, but invading my bird feeder was way out of line. They like to nest under my second-story deck too, but a can of wasp spray that shoots a 20-foot stream of high-powered venom takes care of that problem in short order.

I'll tolerate wasps as long as they stay away from me. One time I got stung when I was going inside from the deck. That wasp quickly became history as did a good number of others when they tried to have their way with The Editor.

The bird feeders down, I was lonely... I was depressed...

What to do?

To be continued...

Stay tuned to see what The Editor did in... The Rocks

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