Attribution: Paul Harrison, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the information that it was apparently not enough to up the alcoholic content of the nectar in the balcony hummingbird feeder to the degree that some hummingbirds might opt to winter in Wisconsin.
It might have helped keep the little rebels here through November, cavorting as they did with beak defrosters and snow goggles, but as of Dec. 2, which is today, they have definitely departed Wisconsin for more tolerable winter environs.
The keeper is trying not to take it personally, but it is just one more reason why he is reassessing his relationship with birds, and seriously thinking about resigning from that grand crowd of bird worshippers. How much rejection can he handle, coming as this latest one does on the heels of the crows’ two-year shunning of his generous offer of balcony corn-on-the-cob and the sparrows’ decision to stop using the ice-covered birdbath?
The birds can take this then as official notice that the keeper is done with them and their fickle ways—some flying halfway around the world to lay eggs on arctic ice and then wintering in the tropics. How ridiculous!
He hasn’t talked it over with Phyllis yet, but it crossed the keeper’s mind that maybe he should get a cat.
Photo by Bill Stokes