Hummers tanking up for trip South

I know when our hummingbirds come in spring and I’ve marked the date on my calendar. I don’t know exactly when they leave in autumn, but when I find several days going by without my seeing a hummer dart to and from the container of sugar-water I keep providing, there’s a change going on. I can’t be sure whether the hummers have actually left or whether I’m glancing toward the feeder during one of their temporary absences from it.

I’ve again replenished the supply of sugar-water in the feeder on my front porch, though, and right now the hummers seem to be going after it with an eagerness that makes me think they’re “tanking up” to begin an imminent flight to Mexico and South America. I marvel at their ability to remember the way not only there, but back again to my porch nearly six months later.

With a cupful of sugar-water in one hand and the feeder I would pour it into in the other, I was being very careful to avoid spilling any of the liquid on the porch floor where a gathering of big black ants waited for me to miss my mark. To my amazement a hummer lit on the rim of that feeder I was holding and he took his time sipping. He was mere inches from my face, which I didn’t think was far enough with such a beak as his.

The hummingbirds don’t seem to mind my being close to the feeder, although they pause mid-air right in front of me as if to make sure I’m the one entitled to be there. They take a few sips, then they disappear for a short while before zooming in on the feeder again. One day several came at the same time and their behavior toward one another was by no means courteous. I would not have wanted my hand in the midst of those beaks that are not only long, but sharp.

Hummers are not the only birds well worth the time spent watching them. Think what a pleasure it was for me the day I counted 14 robins on a grassy plot in my front yard and all of them were facing the same direction. Some tasty — at least to robins — creatures had apparently just hatched out because the robins were definitely feasting. At other times only two or three show up at a time.

What I don’t want parading across my front yard is a flock of Canada geese that ignored my premises all summer, but have evidently remembered a pond at the foot of the hill and now they’re spending entirely too much time there.

A bird feeder in the yard is a busy spot right now. One visitor has me searching through the window beside my favorite chair. The wary bird sees me get out of the chair for a closer look through the binoculars and the minute I do he flies out of sight. He’s not one of our ordinary birds, but my effort to determine his identity is excuse enough for the time spent in the comfortable old rocker by the window, waiting for him to show up.

Even if I haven’t hung the feeder by the time the hummers are here next spring, they’ll be looking for it. They’ll fly right to the spot where I have made a point of hanging it every spring. They’ve done it before, seeming to remember from one summer to the next where they’ll find it waiting for them.

Louise Bailey is a native of Henderson County and lives in Flat Rock. She is the author of several historical books on the people of Henderson County and writes from a lifelong interest in the history of the area.