BIRD BRAINS

My backyard continues to amaze me. (Yours would too if you paid attention to it.) I have all kinds of lovely birds at my feeders and baths, rabbits, even an occasional horny toad. But this season I haven’t had any luck attracting a hummingbird. (Pay no attention to the deep sexual undertones of this post; I’m attempting to be serious.) I took my problem to David Heard, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, who is busy building a new wing on his house with all the money I’ve spent at his store on the mealworms I feed my blue birds. He suggested I buy the new “it plant” for ruby-throated hummers–Sapphire Sage (Salvia guaranitica). I headed to Nicholson-Hardy, picked up a gallon container, and stuck it in a pot below my feeder. Not two minutes later, I had a hummer. Swear on our love. Is this a great city or what? Peak hummer season is about to begin. Get to planting.