It was a beautiful night here in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, clear sky and a temperature of 24 degrees (or 76 Fahrenheit, if you prefer). We decided to sit outside on the patio to eat dinner. It is Friday night and the culinary artist formerly known as Señora Weinhaus went simple. We supped on a green salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a homemade pizza with lots of mushrooms and anchovies. “Mmm, mmm good”, as Gomer Pyle used to say after a tryst.
As tasty as dinner was, what made the price of admission worth it was the floor show. We were treated to 20 minutes of antics by 4 hummingbirds flitting around, using the feeder, and fighting over position on it.
There are 5 stations on the this feeder, but there seems to be some sort of hummingbird protocol for this particular feeder that only allows one to feed on it at a time. As one would feed another would be hovering just over his shoulder. The hovering one would get impatient and dive towards the one feeding. Then both would fly off towards the river birch, in tandem, doing aeronautical maneuvers that would have made a bi-plane pilot jealous. Of course at this point one of the other two birds would show up and perform their interpretation of the bird feeder tango. Frequently all 4 were present. One would be feeding, another sitting on some of the hanging art close to the feeder while the remaining two were hovering or flitting amongst the clematis vines. We were utterly fascinated even though we had seen this floor show many times, but tonight was the first with 4 birds. I also heard a hummingbird chirp for the first time, to me it was a contralto chirp-chirp-chrip. ¡Qué padre!
I believe they were ruby-throated hummingbirds. This species is the most common in Missouri. At one point this summer there was a hummingbird around that was about 50% bigger than the ones we normally see. I never did figure exactly which species the big one was.
Good food, good company and a great floor show compliments of Mother Nature… what more could you ask for?
Keep well.
Lovely dinner and entertainment.
Cool. They seem to be particularly active right now as they prepare for migration.
Ruby throated are so territorial it is unusual to have teo feed at the same time.