Our First Hummer

It took the mourning doves five weeks to move up about 2,000 feet from the Colorado State University campus in Pueblo to here, but we started hearing them calling a couple of days ago.

And today . . . the unmistakeable noise of summer: the buzz of a male broadtailed hummingbird. The usual arrival date is third week of April, so if the first one is here now, that's another sign of how the year is going.

I normally count on one more snowstorm after the hummingbirds return, during which time they huddle on the single clothesline that runs under the porch roof. This year, I don't know. A friend of mine, now gone, who ranched near Penrose, would have said, "All signs fail in times of drought." I ran into his widow yesterday at the Pour House coffeehouse in Florence. She still lives on their ranch, and she was lamenting the lack of run-off.

Of course, some people have real water problems.