The bullies in life...

I usually have a small herd of hummingbirds fighting over the bright red feeders hanging in the trees, but this year, I’ve only seen one and he was chased away by a new guardian of the feeders. It’s not a hummingbird, but a small gray bird with black and gray stripes and a fuzz of red on his head and he drinks out of the feeders and guards them like they belong to him. I guess they do because he is something of a bully. I’m wondering if he is planning to stay nearby for the whole summer and if the hummingbirds will have to find their fill of sweet nectar somewhere else, or if Mr. Bully will, in time, migrate further down the road.

It puts me in mind of the occasional stray tom cat that shows up and bullies my outside cats as they hide and cower in dark corners until he swaggers on down the road and is gone.  I guess that all species must have their bullies and must deal with them, including humans.  
As a child, I certainly remember the bully in the fourth grade who made recess miserable for everyone. She was bigger than all of us and older then the majority of classmates, and she was mean.  At recess time, our only defense was to run to the best hiding place and hope we got there before it filled up with other small children. It was a tree lined, dense, overgrown and weed-choked fence near the playground that had a tunnel bored inside where only small children could fit. So we were safe from the bigger girl who could hit so hard if she got hold of you.
At some time or other, I think we are all plagued with a bully in our lives and we wonder why this had to happen to us. Who created him and why wasn’t he ever stopped? I don’t know the answer to that question, since I was always only the little coward hiding in the unkempt weeds and abundant trees. Since then, I’ve faced a few bullies and actually stood my ground for a short time, but I would rather had crawled into the green sheltered canopy of safety and avoided the confrontation. I imagine that’s exactly what my hummingbirds have done.
 © 2014 Linda Gatewood