Appearances Can Be Deceiving

After a delicious breakfast of crepes at Mount Bakery with Phil, I settled into a day of cooking, which meant it was easy to keep an eye on our hummingbird feeder on the front porch, as our kitchen is at the front of the house.

A second male rufous hummingbird has appeared in the last few days, competing with the one that apparently scared away our Anna's hummingbird pair. Phil put up a second feeder this morning, hoping that would lessen the rivalry, but despite the heavy rain and wind today, mixed with brief periods of sunshine, neither rufous hummingbird would settle on the "new" feeder.

During the heaviest period of rain, one of them arrived at the feeder and before diving into the "nectar," shook himself just like a dog! When you weigh only 0.1-0.2 oz (3-6 g), you don't want to be weighted down by raindrops in your feathers.

And Mr. Cool, Calm and Collected in today's blip didn't look that way earlier in the day, when I noticed him verbally abusing his rival -- not something I'd ever seen before!

I have a number of projects to do on my computer tomorrow, such as sorting out the trains for our journey from Paris to Bruges, Bruges to Béziers, and the return journey to Paris, as well as working on the concert program content for the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra's May 4 concert, which has a rapidly approaching deadline. It's just as well that the single window in our shared office doesn't look out onto the hummingbird feeder!