The Squirrel and the Hummingbird

During this week, I camped along one of my favorite trails near Boulder. The trail is so nice that it seemed for decades there was an unspoken rule among us hiker: don’t let the masses learn about this place. Now the place is much better known—now being among the places one is wiser to visit during a weekday.

The trailhead starts with a bridge over the stream that continues along side the trail for over a mile:

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Lying in my tent, I heard an animal on the tree where I had hung my (borrowed) Backpacker Guitar. Not wanting the cloth case chewed upon, I investigated (i.e. raised my head and poked it out of the tent).  

Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to a camera, but what I saw was a hummingbird fiercely chasing the squirrel away from the guitar case (incidental benevolence), and up the tree, until the squirrel jumped to another tree (chase ensued) and to another, and another—until I think the squirrel settled for a defensible spruce instead of an exposed pine.

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Hummingbirds can be very territorial, as I witnessed, and they are nice protectors of guitar cases if hung on the right tree—even a few months after mating season when their territoriality peaks.