Ho Hum

Last week, Bear and I sat on the porch, waiting for the hummers to visit the feeder.
 It was a hot day, so I came prepared with a glass of iced blackberry/pomegrante green tea (unsweetened of course) and some dark chocolate peanut M&M's.
Just call me "AntiOxidant Man".

Bear had some water and a biscuit.

We snacked and waited.

We waited and waited.

Then, we waited some more.

Bear, ever the genetically engineered bird dog, never wavered from his post.

Other things flitted and flopped by, but no hummingbird came to the feeder.

I was becoming hummingbored.

Eventually my supply of M&M's and green tea ran out, and yet still no hummingbirds.

Bear suggested we investigate the feeder.
He noted that the CLEAR sugar water had a slight change in transparency and I had to agree he was right.

Perhaps our solution was growing a culture.

I decided to flush it all out, sterilize it and then fill it with fresh nectar.

That is when I discovered these ...

The feeder's fake flower feeding tubes were all jammed up with dead ants.

It was late when I discovered the ant carcass clog, so I grabbed the nearest thing that offered some size reference.


That is a standard 5cc syringe in the background.







These might be harvest ants (Doug?).






We are pretty droughty here and perhaps the lure of sweet water was too intoxicating to resist.






In any case, they apparently entered through the feeding tubes meant for a hummers bill and then died inside.






Every single flower was clogged, but not for long as I took the feeder apart and completely sterilized it.






The next morning, I replaced it with a fresh batch of nectar.






The hummer was feeding an hour later.






Bear has been unbearably smug ever since.






He says it is a "bird dog thang" and I would not understand.