Drinking the Rain

So, yesterday I was watching the hummingbird as it sat on the dowel that holds the hummingbird feeder suspended off the railing of the deck, and thinking how much it looked like a miniature kingfisher, when it did something odd. It started to rain (prefiguring today's all-day drizzle), and the hummingbird began to dart its head back and forth, darting its tongue out and back each time. After a while, I concluded that, unlikely as it seems, what I was seeing was it drink raindrops from the air as they fell.

In any case, I was glad to see the hummingbird relaxed and in possession, since two days ago I saw it hunched miserably beside the other feeder, I think lamenting the passing of warmer weather. And it's been dueling with a yellowjacket for its favorite feeder, with the yellowjacket I think getting the upper hand. Now that the cooler weather has come, though, the yellowjacket's days are numbered and the hummingbird shd be in ascendance until the new year.

--JDR