Vacation Feeders
by Karen von Bargen
Having just returned from a trip to the Sierras, I feel obligated to reinforce the idea of taking along a hummingbird feeder when you go on vacation.
My in-laws were staying in a cabin about half a mile from where we had set up our camp. On our first trip to the cabin, I hauled along a hummingbird feeder of which I am not even particularly fond. I think the hummingbird must have been tailing me to the cabin, because it was feeding from the feeder before I had a chance to step back down from the chair I was standing on to see if the feeder was level!
I know rufous hummingbirds aren't that cosmically exciting to everyone, but there were three of my cousins along on this trip who were from Pasadena, California, who had never seen hummingbirds before; they were beyond excited! The youngest cousin kept jumping up from his seat to see the bird and scaring the hummingbird away! What a thrill for them, and what a thrill for me to have been able to provide them with this experience, all by bringing along my feeder.
The moral of my vacation story is to always take a feeder on vacation and have a blast seeing what will show up! I hope it brings as much excitement and fun to your next outing as it did to mine.
