Say "hello" to my little friend FICE-T. This little hummer buzzed his way into my heart last year. As a young male - he chased away all the other little hummers from the feeder and chirped and buzzed all day long as a warning to those who would trespass. Sometimes he perched in the tree across the way to keep a look-out for intruders - at other times he would perch on a branch on my patio and immediately dive bomb any other hummers that tried to feed at the feeder. Once I saw him dive bomb and body slam another hummer so hard that I heard their little bodies hit with a big "smacking" sound! These little guys are so feisty and aggressive that I ended up naming him FICE-T. For a few weeks this year I hadn't seen FICE-T and became worried that something bad had happened to him. For two straight days I thought about him and silently sent him a message that I wanted to see him - and then magically - a day ago - he showed up - all grown up and a handsome specimen of a hummingbird. True to form he perched on the patio branch and chirped away.
My heart needed to have this connection completed as the news from the Gulf is just as toxic as all the oil that is gushing into it.
It does my heart good to know that I am helping out the small innocents of this planet by providing a source of food. Somehow - it helps to negate all of the bad that is the news of the Gulf. And FICE-T - well - he just keeps on chasing away all the other hummers - and his persistence in not wavering from his task is like a breath of fresh air - he just keeps on keeping on no matter what and does the best he can. Which is really all any of us can do.
