The Hummingbird Shower....

I am a bird person...

I inherited this affliction...

My parents are bird people from way back.

(remember Mr. Peabody's "way-back machine"?)

I grew up in a household where bird feeders needed to be cleaned.

Where water was refreshed....

and squirrels chased.

Now 

squirrels are no longer chased

at my parents' house.

The have made peace with the squirrels,

the squirrels won.

Dad now goes to the one remaining 

actual hardware store

(picture wooden floors, barrels, ladders, high ceilings, 

creaky wooden screen doors)

for big bags of peanuts.

The squirrels even

have a name.

"Phred"

all squirrels in my parents yard

share this name.

Don't ask.

Dad has fashioned a very tall pole

that is attached to the deck outside of their

kitchen.

This pole holds the bird feeder.

There is a shallow container of water too.

It is refreshed regularly.

I am pretty sure

that my parents get more pleasure

 from the birds and 

squirrels,

than they did out of raising my 

brother and me.

But back to the hummingbird shower....

I have a shallow ceramic dish on my front porch

that I refill with fresh water

daily in the summer.

This is primarily for drinking,

but as I sit my my BAKW

and watch the birds at the feeder,

I sometimes have the 

pleasure to see 

someone take a joyous bath.

The fluttering and flapping 

always catch my eye,

and as I watch, 

I catch myself grinning.

The sheer ecstasy of it all.....

is evident.

It rarely takes more than 2-3 minutes

and then they are off to a 

branch to shake it all off....

Now,

I feed "hummers" too.

I make my own hummer food

and refill regularly.

But I have wondered......

how do they bathe?

Too small to take a chance on the dish..

and too shy to catch a shower in the 

yard sprinkler, like so many 

smaller birds.

So 

what is up 

with the 

Hummer cleanliness?

I found out today.

The morning has been 

very overcast.....

then it started with a rumble

a shower.....

We had been working on our 

downspouts, just a few nights ago,

so I hurried out to my bedroom balcony,
to check out their efficiency, 

leaned over and saw

a large cow bird in the 

water dish taking a bath.

As I watched.....

a hummer whizzed past,

and up into the tree directly in front of me.

As I watched,

he started to take his shower.....

turning his head this way and that,

fluttering his wings.... 

shaking his boo-tay.....

doing stretches and bends

that would make a 

yoga master envious....

He was bathing but in his own way.

In fact from time to time he would 

move to a more exposed branch

 to take advantage of the shower.

A "master showerer"

he was...

Now I know....

smiles.