Male Hummingbird, Standing Guard

Earlier this summer, after some odd turns of events, I moved our hummingbird feeder to hang from the clothes line over our deck. A small male ruby throat hummingbird has claimed that feeder as his own, and he often stands guard over it. Sometimes during the daylight hours too, but always as dusk approaches.

Because he is such a fierce guardian of the feeder, the other birds don't get to enjoy many snacks there. So I filled a second feeder and I hung it in the meadow. It is far enough away that the male who sits over the deck feeder cannot guard both of them at once. So far, it has not been knocked over or emptied at night (things which happened to it there earlier in the summer - we suspected a bear did it).

On this day, we had rain that started first thing in the morning. The rain came and went, but the little hummingbird was steadfast in maintaining his post. His back is as green as a jewel and his gorget looks dark, not red, from this angle. You can't see it from this side, but he also has very cute feet. Anyway, here is a photo of our little soldier, standing guard, in and between the rains.

The soundtrack song is this one: England Dan and John Ford Coley, with Soldier in the Rain.