After long resisting putting up a hummingbird feeder, thinking I saw plenty of hummingbirds without one, we finally bought a pretty blue glass feeder at Lost River Cave gift shop. Even though it got some visits, it was poorly designed and let all the sugar water drip out in about a day's time. This past Sunday we bought one of those cheap red & yellow plastic ones that work like a baby chick waterer and hung it on a shepherd's hook beside the kitchen window. By the time I got in the house and closed the door a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird with white in the center of his forehead decided that it was a prime piece of real estate and began defending it against all comers. Yesterday I decided that I must have been mistaken about the white forehead spot because the male sitting in the nearby shrub guarding the feeder had no white in the middle of his forehead. Today when I got home for lunch I was greeted by 2 battling hummingbirds. They would face each other a few inches apart, then drag race straight up in the air to about twice the height of the house, then come back down and repeat the process. After 3 races one of them perched in the shrub near the feeder and the other retired to the butterfly bush right beside me. I noticed that the one near me had white in the middle of his forehead. I guess he couldn't keep up the payments on his newfound real estate. Frank Lyne frank@xxxxxxxxxxx near Dot in Logan County ================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS============== The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign your messages with first & last name, city, & state abbreviation. -------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx