THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604040169
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ronald L. Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Everything's going to be all right.
I say that with confidence, because the hummingbirds are back.
And I always feel that nothing can go wrong with hummingbirds flitting around the neighborhood.
They returned on schedule, the beginning of April, despite the long and chilly winter that made me wonder if they would stay down South longer than usual.
I wasn't really expecting them to be on time this year. Nevertheless, Monday night I dug out four plastic feeders decorated with red trim, filled them with a clear mixture of sugar water boiled to a syrupy thickness, and hung them in front of the kitchen windows.
Tuesday afternoon, April 2, I got a call at work from my mother-in-law.
``I'm sorry to bother you at the office,'' Louise said. ``But I couldn't wait until you got home. I just had to tell somebody.
``The hummingbirds are back!
``There's two of the little darlings flapping in front of my window right now. They're just lovely. I just had to tell you. I hope you don't mind me calling you at work.''
I didn't mind at all, because the return of the ``little darlings'' is one of the year's milestones. I spread the good news around the office, and then called a neighbor who likes them as much as I do.
``I'll have my feeders up as soon as I get home,'' she said, as excited as if I had told her she had won the lottery.
And like me, she wondered where they came from.
So I called the Edenton bird man, Paris R. Trail, for the answer.
``They probably came from Mexico, flew for 14 or 18 hours across the Gulf of Mexico at its narrowest part, and then came up to your yard,'' Trail told me.
Most likely, he said, the first arrivals were males.``They claim a territory, and then the females come to the territory and accept whatever male is there.''
Most males have five or six wives, Trail said, and are rotten fathers, doing nothing to help raise the kids.
The birds that migrate to the East Coast are all ruby-throated hummingbirds, he said, and they weigh about as much as a dime.
Probably the birds in my yard were there last year, too, Trail said. Youngsters usually return to the site of their first flight. They find their way, he said, through a magnetic device in their brain that ``itches'' until they settle in their summer home.
And he said they sip the sugar water about like we drink coffee - to give them a boost of energy.They also feed on tiny plant spiders and bugs, he said.They'll be around through October, although many leave earlier in the fall, he said.
And sometimes another species from the West - such as rufus - gets lost and winds up wintering here.
Hummingbirds can travel at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour, and they flap their little wings 50 to 75 times a second. At night, they fall into a stupor and recharge their batteries.
That's probably more than anyone wants to know about hummingbirds, but I get caught up in their activities and watch them for hours when they start sipping out of our feeders regularly.
As I said, I feel all's right with the world when the hummers are here and happy. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
by CNB