We have a single hummingbird feeder hanging from the deck trellis that supports my native 
honeysuckle vine. Over the summer, I'd see a female occasionally stop by, and on one magic day, 
a male make several visits. Our neighborhood is rich in nectar sources - lots of gardens and 
hummingbird feeders, so the resident hummers have a lot of choices. However, we've seen a 
sudden increase in the number of hummingbirds coming to our feeder in the past few days. 

Yesterday, late afternoon, my husband and I were both relaxing on the deck, and watched at least 
three different female or immature Rubythroats visit the feeder and chase each other away from it. 
We got to observe a lot of different behaviors for over an hour, until the sun started to go down.

At one point, one hummer was stubbornly trying to go to the feeder, while another kept dive-
bombing it repeatedly, trying to drive the first one away. At times, it seems like she literally flew 
into the first bird and bumped it. They sparred for about 30-45 seconds, then one flew off with 
the other in hot pursuit.

Do these little fighters actually make body contact? All of this was happening only 4-5 feet away 
from me - I could hear their wings whirring and aggressive little cheeping noises from both of 
them. After the aerial dogfight, there were numerous visits to the feeder by at least two different 
birds. At one point, one perched on top of the feeder hanger and chattered at us, as if to say "MY 
Nectar! MINE!."

One also tended to perch in the willow oak right next to our deck, and was doing a lot of 
grooming - scratching at its feathers with its foot and preening with its bill a lot. I wonder if 
moulting makes them more irritable? 

We also saw the huge nighthawk kettle come over our house - it looked like the satellite loops of 
Tropical Storm Ernesto, with an overall counter-clockwise swirl and lots of independent eddies by 
small groups of birds. At one point, the whole group suddenly shifted to the right, as if someone 
had discovered a denser patch of insects over there. 

Between hummer dogfights and nighthawk aerial squadron maneuvers, it was a great Sunday on 
our deck!

Mary LaMarca
Silver Spring