RUBY! THEY… TITLED SONGS AFTER YOU, POLISHED VALUED STONES TO HONOR YOU AND PEOPLE HAVE NAMED THEIR CHILDREN AFTER YOU. NOW, YOU… LEFT US COLD, FLED THE AREA, LEFT WITHOUT A NOTICE OR A FOND GOODBYE. SO LONG, RUBY, ITàBEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU.
Like an admired fleeing deep red precious gem, Ruby has taken flight and is zipping her way south in this mid-fall time of September to fly back to the area of the Gulf Coast of Texas to finally migrate south to Central America or the Gulf of Mexico.
Ruby, our favorite hummingbird from this yearàflight that arrived on our front porch feeder in early May and remained with us until yesterday morning, has abandoned her usual post that was precisely in the middle of a stretched clothesline on our front deck that overlooks acres of oak and white pine trees, maples and elm, and provides all else she needed to call this place home, at least for five months of the year.
We fed you and photographed you, Ruby. We made up silly songs about you with most of our extended family, wondering when you would finally decide to take that long, arduous, and dangerous journey back to the warmer area that you arrived from nearly a half-year ago.
Well, Ruby, you¥ gone and done it. As I write this, you and some of your buddies are winging your way south for a thousand miles or more, to take up residence down where it is warmer than here. Then, you, gather again in early 2026 and do it all over again, only this time you, be headed back up north, hopefully to our front deck again, where we can admire your frolicking and erratic flying, buzzing and tearing around the house all day long, even during the hottest of weather.
Speaking with our friends about our favorite birds we see in these parts, the hummingbird surfaces frequently as their favorite bird. The birds arrive during the first week of May around MotheràDay, race around chasing each other through the days of summer, and fold up their tents and leave during the waning days of September or sooner.
These sleek, fast-moving birds are usually of one type in these parts, the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, which is colored an elegant, bright, reflective green along its back and top with a gray-tan underbelly with brown heads and sides. The males have a bright red throat.
Hummingbirds love to suck the nectar of red and orange colored flowers. I have stood on my front deck on some past Memorial Days before observing the parade and have had hummingbirds hit upon me, poking their sharp red beaks at the red areas on my clothing.
Male and female ruby-throated hummingbirds are highly aggressive in their defense of their feeding grounds and those brightly colored red flowers. We have seen some impressive aerial combat maneuvers take place when our female friend, Ruby, would take up her station at the midpoint of a close line and carefully watch for intruders into her space who were seeking her sugar water.
When any outsiders appeared, Ruby would take off at 100 miles an hour and drive them away. This is how she spent all her time, and we would notice that at the first crack of dawn, she was on her station, waiting for visitors to come and drink their morning nectar, but first to confront Ruby, who would prevent that from happening.
Of all the hummingbirds we had flying here, Ruby was by far the most ferocious. Intruders, rather than dealing with her and making a dangerous air strike into her space, would instead fly away and find a more peaceful area in which to drink their sugar water.
So, we will eagerly await the hummingbirds!rrival in the spring of next year and hopefully our little female friend will be with them, where she will take up her station and provide a secure environment so that she might scatter those pesky competitors, while allowing her to dine in peace.

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