As you can tell from the book in the side bar, I've been doing some reading about Alpha Males. And as you might expect, they have some tremendous strengths--and some tremendous potential weaknesses.
It turns out this is also true of Alpha Birds, like this one. We affectionately call him Big Boss Bird, as he has claimed the feeder just outside our dining roomwindow as his own. He is one bold bird when it comes to chasing intruders away.
Today, however, his boldness got him into trouble. He flew into the house, and then up into the sky light which he thought was the way out. It wasn't. He exhausted himself up there before willingly perching on a broom I extended to him. We set the broom out back on the deck and when his strength returned he flew away.
Did he learn humilty to temper his boldness? Only time will tell!
(By the way, for those of you who enjoy the hummingbird pics, I put up a new photo album on the side.)
Wow, that's an incredible picture. I have a few hummingbirds around this year, but only blurry pictures to show.
Posted by: entangled | August 23, 2007 at 07:53 AM
Wow! You got some great pictures, and I really enjoy the titles/storyline. Funny how hummers can be kinda "dumb" when they get indoors. I had one get caught in the garage once, with the big door OPEN! He just kept flying above the open door, then to the closed window, then back. Finally, he perched on a broom I extended just like yours did, and let me take him outside. Really nice blog you have here, BTW...I "flew in" from Tangled Branches' link.
Posted by: lisa | August 23, 2007 at 05:55 PM
What a great story, Rob. Scot saw another hummingbird yesterday (3 sitings so far) near some red flowers, but we still haven't seen any on the hummingbird feeders.
Question: Should we put some of the "red stuff" (whatever that is) in the sugar water in order to better attract them?
Posted by: Kris | August 24, 2007 at 08:29 AM