We're Going to Need a Bigger Feeder

There is no peace on our patio. I hung the hummingbird feeder outside the kitchen window, directly over the patio chairs and expected we'd have a good view of the little birds both from inside through the window and sitting out on the patio, as they flitted in to feed on occasion, .

They don't visit "occasionally", they are at that feeder constantly all day. All summer we have been mobbed.

Two or three fight over it with daring swoops and head on attacks. We have to duck when they have aerial dogfights over our heads, they don't even care that we are there and fly right at us in their agitation to drive off the others. It's fascinating to watch, but having a drink out on the patio is not a calm, relaxing affair.

We had ruby throated hummingbirds in Connecticut. I used this same feeder, which holds a cup of sugar water, and hung it by the patio there. We had occasional visitors and it was fun to watch. But the feeder was a pain to maintain. The sugar water would sit and it got mildew easily, disgusting bugs got into it, and I had to remember to clean it and refill it on a weekly schedule. I'd forget sometimes.

Here I can't forget. With hummingbird visits every few minutes all day long, the feeder goes dry in two days and I can see it needs filling again. Sugar water never sits long enough to mildew, and the air is too dry here anyway. No ants or bugs have found it.

I'm never alone when I'm outside. Hummingbirds chirp and chatter, they fly at each other, they make constant forays from the fence to the feeder and back. Their beating wings and even their whirring tail feathers make noise.

There seem to be two kinds, delicate black chinned hummers and rufous hummingbirds that are migrating through the area now. The rufous male hummers are orange tinted and the females have black spotted throats and green backs. The rufous males are bold, fearless, and love a good chase. They won't stay still for a photo.

I need to buy a bigger feeder that holds more than a cup. We're going away for five days, and this small feeder will run dry. There are flowering plants that they visit here too, so they won't starve, but all summer these aggressive, noisy, agitated little birds have let me know that this is their feeder and they expect it to be filled and more sugar please . . . now.