Berck got me a hummingbird feeder and hung it for me outside the study window. There it sat, very lonely, for a couple of months. If hummingbirds don’t know where a feeder is already, they have to discover it.

Finally, I heard the unmistakable jingling of a male hummer. I didn’t look up at first because I’m so used to hearing them at work. Michele has three hummingbird feeders and has to refill them daily. He tasted my aged brew that had been there since I put the thing up and flew away. Berck laughed at me, “He said, ‘Ugh! This is some nasty stuff!’ You got to change the food if you want them to eat it.”

I bought some bright red petunias thinking that might attract some hungry hummers. I got a couple of lonely customers here and there in the weeks following, but they just seemed to be passing through. More likely the house finches would perch on one side of the feeder, letting their weight pull the fluid down to fill up the hole so they could drink up the tasty sugar water. Berck wasn’t too thrilled with the house finches. He claimed it just gave them a place to perch and scream at him.

Yesterday, though, a female hummer came by a couple times in a row. I took the fan out of the window to give her a fresh batch of sugar water. This afternoon she’s been coming by every five minutes! And she announces her presence each time, cheering commenting on the quality of the nectar inside her special flower. I noticed that my freshly filled feeder had some floaters in it already, so I took it away and heated up some super solution.

When I brought it back to the window, she was waiting for me! She didn’t even wait for me to hang the feeder up before she approached it. When I did hang it, she took a deep drink (with me standing right there) and then hovered a little higher and examined the metal hook that attaches the feeder to the chain that hangs from the roof overhang. I had to try pretty hard to keep from laughing out loud. I just stood there with the screen in my hand while she drank and drank the hot liquid, looking up to comment about it in her trilling voice. Finally, I put the screen up, and she thought she should get out of the way.