Ingrid and I have five hummingbird feeders scattered around our yard . . . each one could easily accommodate a half dozen birds at the same time.

But Ruby-throated Hummingbirds don’t like to share and the hummers in our yard spend most of the their late August days chasing each other away from these feeders.

We sit on our deck watching these high speed dogfights, the birds often flying just a few feet away in a headlong effort to protect “their” feeders.

If one looks carefully, you can see hummingbirds sitting in our oak trees, watching the feeders . . . prepared to attack an interloper.