Monday, September 07, 2009

"Little Nell"?

We recently hung up a hummingbird feeder out at the cabin and started getting visitors almost immediately. Unfortunately, they weren't all hummingbirds - we also get a lot of wasps or hornets or whatever they are. More often than not, any of these vespids will chase off any hummingbirds who dare to try to feed on what we put out for the birds, not the bees.

The Chief doesn't like these bullies, and will sometimes grab the flyswatter and go outside to do battle, nearly always coming back in with at least one or two more "kills" to his credit. (He has yet to be stung; I hope he can continue that record!) These sallies generally arise when he looks out the window to check the feeder and sees that "Little Nell is under attack!" For some reason, he decided to name the hummingbirds after a flying James Bond gadget of the same name, which the Internet tells me was featured in You Only Live Twice.

Anyone out there in the blogosphere who knows how to discourage bees, wasps, hornets and the like from freeloading at our hummingbird feeder?

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