Hummingbird Stories - Truth or Fiction??

Well here is the hummingbird story I promised. If you have read my previous humming bird post you'll remember that the Alpha male had performed his intimidation dance in front of me while I was watering the garden. He did the same thing one time after that, and I squirted him again with the hose. Now before you yell at me for being mean I should tell you that the hose has a setting for shower and that is what I use to water the garden and flower beds. The flow is very gentle and wouldn't hurt him if he was right up against the nozzle.


Up until last week we had not had any rain to speak of for over two weeks and things were pretty dry, big cracks in the ground all around the house and in the garden. One evening while I was watering Alpha male(now named Alfie) came by and sat on a branch near where I watered. He flew at me but stopped about three or four feet in front of me and hung there like he wanted to get my attention. He didn't dive at me or even squawk at me, just hung there. I held the hose up so that the water was near but not on him.....he flew into the shower and hung there a few seconds and then went back to his perch on the branch. He fluffed his feathers and shook himself off and then flew back to the spot he had gotten showered before and hung there.......so I slowly moved the shower over and he again hung in the water and then went back to his branch, shook off the water, fluffed his feathers and buzzed away.

Now is that one smart bird or what??? He knew I would squirt him, but he also knew I wouldn't hurt him, so he got a much needed bath without having to share the birdbath with all the other dirty birds.......

They still have their hummingbird wars, and he stands guard on a branch near the feeder waiting for the unwelcome dinner guests. But I guess that is just the way it will be, Alfie is after all Alpha male and in charge of this house, garden and feeder and the occasional handheld birdbath shower.