The hummers are gone...

...long live the sparrows.

I dismissed my wife's observation that this was the week that the hummingbirds would leave us. I scoffed. Just last Sunday, sitting at this very kitchen table, I watched half a dozen dance and parry for airborne superiority and territoriality. The days still feel long and hot. There are full beckoning feeders. Summer is still upon us in Kentucky. What earthly reason would prompt the hummers to forsake such bounty in favor of some other locale?

The seed feeders were empty. I could understand why the sparrows were staying away. My lack of attention to their feeding stations was unwelcoming. They had good reason to not grace us with their presence.

So I took a minute out of my busy Sunday morning ritual time and filled the seed feeders. In less than two minutes the perches were again graced by the anxious group flight behaviors of sparrow families. So simple are the joys.

Most likely we will not see the hummers again until next spring... long live the sparrows.