REDNECK ROMANCE

I was very lucky the other day to spot something I have never seen in all my years of Hummingbird watching.

I was heading towards the house from the shed when I saw what I thought was a Hummer suicide attempt.

The little fellow flew straight up in the air at incredible speed then hung in mid-air for a second at the top of a very high arc. He was just a speck. Then he dove straight for the ground in an apparent attempt to end it all.  Just feet from the ground, he pulled up and zoomed toward the sky again.

I had no idea what I was seeing but I continued to watch. I was not the only one watching. From her perch on the feeder, his dives were admired by a sweet young thing that I swear I could see smiling.

Not sure this is same pair but these two did a nice reenactment of the initial meeting for me  after 58 throw away shots of at least 50 different birds.  

He then flew in confidently and sat near her on the perch. He ruffled his glorious ruby throat and it glistened in the sun. I could swear I heard the Hummingbird equivalent to,  "Hello there, I'm Mr. Right. Someone said you were looking for me."

Her back was to me so I didn't see her response. What I did see was the red necked Lothario, leave his perch, hover over her back side, and drop down for a whopping few seconds on her behind.

He took her right at the dinner table and I am not sure she even quit slurping nectar during the process.   In about 3 seconds, he was finished  and flew off to spread his seed elsewhere. And I thought bunnies were fast.

That was it folks. A little showing off with some high dives, a quickie, then he goes off to play with some new female  and she is now a single mother. Yikes.

When you look at the whole picture, male Hummingbirds have atrocious table manners. They  are always quarreling pushing and shoving. Their love making is pretty close to date rape and they are no-show fathers. They want no part of being a parent. For some reason, this seems to work for the species.

Even with all that going against the little dudes, I am still enamoured with the adorable little rascals and am totally forgiving (probably since I am not a female Hummer).

Those little red necked lovers really rely on cute carrying them past bad behavior.  Works for me as long as it is only a tiny bird behaving badly and not a member of the human species trying such antics.  Then cute carries no weight. 

Needless to say, I have scratched lady Hummingbird off my list as a creature to come back as.

So if you ever see a Hummer taking a high altitude dive, stick around for a second and don't blink. You may get to witness what I did.