Hummingbirds
One of my favorite things out here in SoCal is that there are lots of hummingbirds. Actually, there are many interesting birds out here, but I have a particular love for the little hummingbirds.
To encourage them to hang out in our yard, we’ve had a feeder for years. A simple sugar-water mix and they slurp it up all year. There are less birds in the winter, as most breeds migrate, but there are some which stay, and now that it’s summer, there are almost always some birds in our back yard.
That many birds and you’d expect the feeder to run low more quickly than in the winter months, of course. However, in the past couple of weeks, the “nectar” has been disappearing in record time. We’ve been calling the birds “miniature pigs with wings” as the feeder is often dry in a couple of days after filling.
Now we know why. Caught in the act, that is (we think) a Hooded Oriole which apparently loves sugar water as much as the hummingbirds do. We’ve seen both him and, we think, his mate at the feeder and they often sit on our back fence and chirp at the Mockingbirds, Sparrows, Mourning Doves and other birds who share the yard.
And yes, we feel guilty for blaming the tiny guys for being pigs.