What happened to hummingbirds?

Hey, help me, I need to know: What happened to the hummingbirds this year? We had a lesser number than usual last year but this year they simply came and suddenly went.

The feeders were put out at the usual time and a single bird arrived in a few days as had been the system for many years. In fact, several more appeared almost out of nowhere and we were off toward a summer of watching how the feeders were guarded and emptied as the backyard was beginning to hum to that figure of speech.

Last year began almost the same way, but a bunch (I can’t remember what a flock of birds is — is it a flock? Or …) but about ten or a dozen Orioles arrived and kept feeding and guarding the feeders for a couple of days before they moved on. Then there were a couple of frosty nights and most of the hummers also hit the road (air) and just a few, apparently of couples, remained until the hottest months arrived and then they showed up occasionally until … well, now you know the rest of the story.

But back to this April and early May. It wasn’t humming in the back yard but the notice of fluttering wings was quite obvious until … so here we go … or here they went. The Orioles did arrive — not a bunch or flock but what appeared to be a single couple who took over for a couple of days until they disappeared. They must have left a message for the hummers to follow but they stayed for awhile (until the middle of May) when they also hit the breezes.

Zingo, zero and other zzzzees, so now, after replacing the untouched joy juice in the feeders a couple of times, well, it’s all over. The only thing that could have happened is there is blooming honeysuckle in the nearby woods to take charge. Could that be what happened? We’ll just give it a couple more weeks and then try again next spring.

But the buckeye tree was spared a frosty night this year and appears to be loaded with fruit/nuts? which the squirrels will begin feeding on later in the summer or early autumn. And there are a few fireflies fluttering around as dark approaches each evening and surely there will be some June bugs and a few zoo-ee, zoo-ee cicadas and dragonflies.

So let’s really change direction: “What in the devil is wrong with the country?” Do you ever hear that verbiage question? It is asked in many forms but it really comes down to nine words. In fact, doesn’t the question answer itself if a person will just let it? There are some who will not accept that statement when you answer, “It’s just the devil at work.”

That answer sometimes gets an argument going. But isn’t it just discussing? Some say the idea that something called a “devil” is just a made up somebody or something that explains some wrongdoing such as swiping something from a store, telling a tall tale or just making up a lie to cover any wrongdoing, something a person or persons, young or old, do. Even countries do so, as it is happening throughout the world, destroying a country and killing hundreds of people. Such is the work of a selfcentered would-be history maker building his legacy

to become part of the “in” club which really is the Kremlin Klub made up of Lenin and Stalin. Putin shares those last two letters in his name with those who ruled the USSR. And now he is ruling Russia to make up much of what was. Ukraine and its people are now his victims.

There are so many other countries in the world that have been overtaken by a ruler who is beginning a democracy and has lost control, or has lost his or her republic/democracy form and cannot grasp the type of government in the good old USA which evolved from a republic into a democracy. Unfortunately, a real selfgrowing country can only be kept from becoming a somewhat democracy as its people allow the drift, which over time can gain control. It is that drifting that we were warned of back in the 1940s by economist Friedrich A. Hayek who said that thinking or not thinking people hold the future in their hands.

Enough said this week. Till next time.