Studoc: "Let's get a hummingbird feeder."
Me: "Why?"
Studoc: "It would be fun to watch the hummingbirds eat and fly around out on our balcony."
Me: "Yeah, but then I'll get stuck having to refill their sugar water all the time. I've got enough to do taking care of our son."
Studoc: "I'll refill it. Plus, (pointing to son) he'd like watching them fly around out there, too."
Me: (now feeling like if I say no I'd be denying my child a simple pleasure) "Well, okay. As long as you promise you will be in charge of refilling the sugar water. They are YOUR bird babies."
Studoc: "Okay! You'll see, you'll like watching them, too."
Enter the bird babies |
A few weeks later at Walmart:
Studoc: "Let's get another hummingbird feeder."
Me: "What? Why? We already have one!"
Studoc: "I have to refill the feeder like every other day. If we get another one, a bigger one, I won't have to refill as often."
Me: "I don't want another one. Especially not a bigger one. Then we're gonna be those weird people with tons of bird feeders on their apartment balcony."
Studoc: "It won't be that bad. Haven't you enjoyed watching the birds?"
Me: (sigh) "Yes."
Studoc: "Then let's get another one and we'll have even more birds. It'll be fun!"
Me: "Okay, but I seriously draw the line at 2 feeders. Seriously. Any more feeders and you'll become the crazy cat lady's male equivalent, only with birds."
Studoc: (laughs and fully appreciates the Simpsons reference)
Studoc: (laughs and fully appreciates the Simpsons reference)
Enter the super-sized feeder IN ADDITION to the smaller one |
We get so many hummingbirds |
For reals |
Apparently hummingbirds are quite territorial. They constantly fight to be king (or queen) of the feeder. |
It's normal for us to watch 8-12 birds twittering about out there. Studoc had fun numbering them in this picture. |
View from my "spot" on our couch. I have to admit, they are fun to watch so closely! |
Here is a video of the balcony bird babies and their daily antics. If you listen closely, you can hear them tweeting. If you watch closely, you can see flashes of a smaller black dot dash around. That's the bee that tries to scare the birds away from the feeder. If you wonder who wins out in a bee/hummingbird showdown, the bee usually does!
Truth be told, I enjoy watching the birds. And Studoc has stayed true to his word about being in charge of the refills. I think he likes having other things to do and set his mind to other than med school stuff all the time. It's good for him.
A few days ago at home:
Studoc: "Even with the 2 feeders, I have to refill them every 3 days. We're going out of town for a week soon, and if they run out of food I've read they may not come back."
Me: "Honey, I really don't think we should buy more feeders. We've gone out of town before and they came back."
Studoc: (thinks for a minute) "Then I'll try to fashion another feeder out of Rubbermaid tupperware we're not using."
Me: "Oh, dear...."