Never wave anything red in front of a bull. The same holds true when it comes to hummingbird fledglings. I generally concider myself a bright enough person to avoid running around anywhere near a bull especially if I'm wearing red. This morning I wore a red shirt and believe it or not, a red sweater. It's been blessedly cool today. Anyway, I wore red. Lots of red. There are no bulls in my backyard or anywhere that I know of within the contiguous 140 acres of my property. I have no idea if any of my neighbors on any of the surrounding farms own any bulls but there definitely are no bulls out on my deck. I do have hummingbirds. Lots of hummingbirds. I encourage them with three large feeders filled with red sugar water. I knew that the fledglings were out but I wasn't thinking. Hummingbird fledglings aren't the brightest birds in the world. They don't leave the nest with much training. I've seen them poke their little beaks at anything remotely resembling red. I've seen them poke their little beaks at stuff that isn't red. I've seen them chase goldfinches away from the finch seed feeder even though I've never seen a hummingbird eat finch food. I've seen them do this year after year but still I walked innocently, clad in red, out onto my deck to enjoy my morning coffee. I was even carrying my red coffee mug. My shoes were red. My hair is red. The only relief from red was my blue jeans and my blue socks. They weren't red. The hummingbirds didn't actually attack me; however, it wasn't long though before I heard the whirring of hummingbird wings. I dismissed this as the usual hummingbirds visiting my feeders. Pretty soon I got a prickly feeling on the back of my neck. You know, that prickly feeling when someone is watching you? I'm not paranoid but I do get that prickly feeling when someone is watching me...or when I think someone is watching me. I glanced over my shoulder and there they were. Four hungry hummingbird fledgings lined up and hovering for a chance to check out the new flower that had walked out into their world and onto my deck. They were practically salivating. It was early. I hadn't even taken more then a sip of my coffee. I was confused. So were they. And then it dawned on me. Red. I was wearing red. Lots of red. RED! Poor birds. I went inside to finish my coffee. I'll have to change my shirt...and sweater...and maybe my shoes. The hair will have to stay.

Today's Little Bit of Trivia

Bees flap their wings 300 times a second. A hummingbird sounds remarkably like a large bee. When I had my gutters installed one year, my hummingbirds really scared that poor man who installed my gutters. I didn't laugh when he nearly fell off his ladder trying to dodge them. He thought he was being attacked by mutant bees. I don't recall that he was wearing anything red at the time.