Sunflowers, Hummingbird, and Pecking Order
Editor's Corner

Summer is officially here. Of course the heat is an indicator but in Austin we can hit the 90s quite early in the year. What I'm talking about is a yearly event that is unmistakable. The first Ruby-throated Hummingbird showed up this morning. There's no way it's a veteran from last year. Last year we didn't have a feeder out by the time the first hummingbird showed up. It knew what it was looking for, hovering right where the feeder had been hanging the year before. My wife was standing at the sink which has a large window looking out into the backyard. The hummingbird came over and hovered for quite a while right in front of the window where she was standing, looking in. I think it was trying to tell us something. This year we were ahead of the game and have had a feeder out for several weeks. So when the hummingbird showed up we were ready. However this novice didn't exactly have the hang of things. It kept trying to feed off the bottom lip of the ring where the syrup sits. Of course the feeding holes are on top. After a while it went over to a light wire we have strung underneath the overhang to which our feeders are attached. It sat there a while thinking things over. It flew back to the feeder and tried again. It did manage to get to the top side of the ring once but went back to trying to feed off the bottom. I'm sure it will figure it out. Hummingbirds need a lot of energy to exist. Many people might be surprised that their main source of food is insects. But they need plenty of carbs to keep up their astounding level of energy.

There is definitely a pecking order at the feeders. Our most frequent, almost constant, visitors are House Finches. Recently Red Birds have figured out how to feed from our tube feeder that sits inside a cage. The finches don't flinch when they show up. However when Blue Jays swoop in the small birds leave but don't go very far. The top dogs are the Red-bellied and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers. Even the somewhat larger Blue Jays leave post haste. The finches do boss around at least one type of bird. The other day I noticed a titmouse trying to land on the dish at the bottom of the feeder that catches falling seeds. A finch was actively repelling the titmouse like a crewman warding a pirate off the edge of a ship.

Our forest of sunflowers is now in full bloom. These are not sunflowers sown in orderly rows but clumps and individuals "planted" by birds. Then there are tightly packed ranks of plants growing from seeds of last year's sunflowers. They are incredibly vital and vigorous plants. They are not neat and tidy garden plants but they exude tremendous energy. The electric yellow petals shine like beacons in the back yard and one can't help being uplifted by their exuberant show of color.