My hummingbird enthusiast friends and I were more than perplexed about the absence of hummingbirds this year. I had decided there would be none. Thankfully, I was wrong.

The first hummer I saw this year was very early in March. Feeders went out immediately. Another one did not appear for months, then only one, or only one I saw.

As a friend left my house late on a recent afternoon, I saw what I thought was a speeding dragonfly pass by my front door. A little later, I looked out and saw a hummer drinking nectar from a feeder hanging in a crape myrtle at my kitchen window. That particular feeder has stayed infiltrated by big black ants.

The ants crawl into the nectar and swim in circles for dear life. They also crawl over the outside of the feeder and onto me between the time I take down the feeder and reach my kitchen sink. Returning hummers do not seem to be bothered by the big ants. They feed alongside the insects. It occurred to me that hummingbirds probably vie with ants for nectar in the wild on a regular basis.

However, I am not accustomed to a sink full of them trying to escape. I hate to put scalding water on them, so I wash them away with cold water and wait for them to crawl out of my drain. So far, none have. Without fail, some manage to get on me. They do not show up immediately, but eventually make themselves known.

Hummingbirds do not like fancy, expensive feeders. In my many years of experience with them, the cheaper and uglier the feeder the more they like it. I once had a tacky plastic feeder I paid 50 cents for at a thrift shop. Hummers loved it and preferred it to my nice, hand-painted feeders. After providing years of services, the feeder finally developed a crack that did it in.

Male hummers fight and clash in midair. They set their sights on a feeder and claim it as their own. Even if they are gorged on nectar, they do not want another male near it. Sometimes they even dart at females.

My two feeders at the rear of my house pose a delicate problem for the fighters. Males who set their sights on both feeders become busily belligerent, because the feeders are maybe 10 feet apart. While they are running off a male from one feeder, another male sneaks in and dines at the other one. The male who thinks he is in charge of the feeders chirps and darts and intimidates until both feeders are his again. His reign never lasts long. A rogue hummer is never far away.

One of the feeders has presented a problem this year it never did before. A certain female hummingbird appears to think a flamingo several inches tall on a wind chime hanging from the feeder is the real thing. She sits on the tiny feeder perches and drinks, then hovers in the flamingo’s face as though to intimidate it into going away.

It is said hummers spend winters in South America and return to the same feeding spots to the north every year. Apparently, this is a new girl and one unfamiliar with a little, pink flamingo hanging from a place where she drinks nectar.

A mortal enemy of hummingbirds is the oak snake. I contended constantly with them on feeders while living in Grady County woods. The serpents wrap themselves around feeders or limbs near feeders hanging in trees. Their attack is as quick as a rattler’s strike. They swallow the tiny birds whole.

My late friend Sonny Stoddard found an oak snake on a limb near one of his many feeders. He cut the snake open and found the reptile’s belly full of hummingbirds. Sonny loved his hummingbirds. He had many at his house on Meridian Road in south Grady County. The little creatures literally swarmed at his feeders. When hummers were not active at the feeders, Sonny knew an oak snake was the reason. He sought out the snakes. Their quick demise was not pretty. Sonny showed no mercy.

To date, serpents at hummingbird feeders are not a problem since I moved to the city. The ants I can deal with, along with the wasps and bees who sometimes dine on hummer nectar. It could happen. Snakes do show up in unlikely spots. I have seen one dead on a street near my house and found a small dead one on my sidewalk. I placed the stiff, crooked carcass in a planter for fertilizer purposes.

Meanwhile, the girl hummer trying to run off the flamingo is in for a big surprise. Hanging on the other side of the feeder are three more small wind chimes. One features a little cat, another a pink-jeweled butterfly and the other lots of clear, pale-green likenesses of herself.