Hummingbirds Vampires Attack!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, maybe just a gentle mugging.

Anyway, Mrs. Cards (also fondly known as “She who must be obeyed”) is in Philadelphia for a week visiting her family and I am free here in baseball Cardinals country to drink beer, watch sports and the Man Show without any feminist vetos of my behavior. I do, however, have to perform certain duties regarding her garden, which can be generally translated as “if everything is dead when I get back because you didn’t water, …”.

It should be noted that she has an extensive garden, with plants that attract all manner of wildlife. So. I come home from work and remember that I need to take care of the tasks assigned (before turning on the Cardinals and hoping some team is stup…er, smart enough to offer their pitching staff for J.D. Drew), which include filling the hummingbird feeders near the pond.

Now I enjoy the space she has made and delight in the hummingbirds joyfully dive bombing each other in their frenzy to get to the flowers and the feeders. I also like how they are unafraid of us on the deck and get so close. Wasn’t quite prepared for this though.

I hadn’t changed the feeders this year. As I’m doing it tonight, one female bird, decides it has had enough of my dawdling and begins to circle my head, within a couple of feet. Close even by hummingbird standards. I get the feeder up and just stand motionless for a moment. The female HB gets verrrry close to my face and then begins to move side to side.

Suddenly, she goes to my chest and begins tapping me. On the red Cardinals baseball emblem. Trying to suck my vital juices and lifeforce out. Repeatedly.

I can’t move. I’m frozen.

The question is: does she love me for myself or just that I look good in red?

2

LOL!

3

Ya gotta post a pic so we can decide if red’s your color! :smiley:

Great story!

4

It’s BECAUSE it’s red. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color. I read about a guy with a red fishing hat(think Col. Blake from MASH), and the birds tried to peck through the little holes. And that’s why the feeders for hummingbirds almost always have red or dark orange on them somewhere.

5

Let’s see. First we had the packs of feral chihuahuas. Then the packs of mutant kitties. Now this.

Is the whole world starting to look like a Stephen King novel?

6

I saw a documentary once which said that hummingbirds are the meanest birds in the animal kingdom. They have no social behavior, and often stab one another with their beaks.

I remember that one of the orinthologists said “If hummingbirds were the size of sparrows, no one would be able to leave their house.”

7

Hummingbirds kind of freak me out.

8

Have you ever seen those buggers during their mating season? They go insane. At my parents’ house, we used to have dozens of those little bastards looping crazily about and chittering at each other. It was like watching a Blue Angels air show from very, very far away sped up ten times fast.

They’re also surprisingly loud up close. I actually dove for cover once or twice when one whizzed overhead.

Cute little guys, though.