Thursday, October 22, 2009

HUMMINGBIRD WARS


It was the biggest spider I've seen
in years. The orb was at least
three feet by three feet.
It spanned from the patio railing
up to the roof totally covering
a triple planter and the front of
the hummingbird feeder.
I wish I took a picture.
The orb was perfect and
beautiful.

Although the chill of fall has
started for most this is
Southern California and it is still
summer. I was sitting on
the patio having my morning
jolt of caffiene before going out.

One by one the hummingbirds approached
the feeder. Although it is normal for them to do this,
none would fly around the web to reach the feeder
from the other side. The would just keep
buzzing back and forth in front
of the feeder as if they were intimidated
by the size of the spider.

When I was a kid I remember seeing a
large spider snare a small mouse in it's web.
So I guess seeing a spider almost
their size the hummingbirds were afraid
of becoming snared in the web?

I have never seen hummingbirds
cooperate in anything. In fact they seem
to take great joy in constant attempts to
intimidate each other. Especially
for exclusive rights to the feeder.

Then two hummingbirds started to buzz
in front of the web. The male actually
appeared to be buzzing a fraction of an
inch from the spider as if to try to
chase it off. But the spider held it's
ground in the center of the web.

What happened next was totally unexpected.
Together the two hummingbirds
started to take the supports for the
web in their long beaks then flying backwards
to tug at them. First one of the webs attaching
the web to the railing broke partially
collapsing the web. The spider
held it's ground.

The hummingbirds continued to tug
at the web until it totally collapsed and
the spider ran off into the plants.

As soon the as web was collapsed
the male hummingbird chased off the
female to use the feeder first.
Back to normal nasty bird hummingbird
behavior.

Maybe you find this little story rather
boring. But for me these are
the little things in nature that make
it so exciting and interesting.











1 comment:

  1. ha! I liked you little story! No humming birds here - just lots of coyotes accross the way...I love listening to them howl at night! One ran in front of my car the other day...went for a walk to look for them - but had no luck! The deer are also starting to get antsy - saw one of those today out and about looking for food! Winter's coming!

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