I’ve had my hummingbird feeders up for a couple weeks, but I have not seen any hummers in the yard until last night some time after I got home from work. And to think if I hadn’t been dawdling before I went swimming, I might have missed her!
So it was nice to grab a long look at a very hungry female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird through the kitchen window, where one feeder is strategically placed on the sumac. I have come to consider the sumac a weed, but it’s still pretty when it leafs out and flowers later in the year and the birds like it, so it stays.
Thanks to all who are following my blog and those who make the effort to like my posts. I wish I could respond to each and every one of you individually. Maybe someday I’ll get there (I’m even worse with facebook, ask anyone who has “friended” me). In the spirit of my disorganization, I am offering somewhat of a hodgepodge, smorgasbord post.
It’s been a busy Labor Day Weekend, or so it seems–difficult to let go of the last three-day weekend until the Big Holidays at the end of the year. I’ve been trying to let go of the work week as much as possible. Saturday morning was the only morning of the past three I woke up with work on my mind.
I heard this little clip of Beniamino, one of my six little male zebra finches, on Saturday when I was listening to a tape in the car. He has hopped right onto the microphone and started singing, and then calling. Pietro sings a moment later.
The juvenile Ruby-Throated Hummingbird left my yard sometime last week, but now I have an adult female coming to my feeders. She seems to know who fills the feeders, because when I went out yesterday afternoon to see if she would show up for a picture, she soon flew right over my head and to the closest feeder in front of me. And perched. She seems to like to relax and take her time about these things.
Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Also have a few pictures from around the yard.
Young Male House Finches
I was trying out a new camera. I’m taking a trip in November and it seemed like time to get something a little more bird friendly. Actually it is more friendly from the standpoint of noise alone – the shutter click is a lovely sound compared to the tin-can clunk of my other cameras.
Male American Goldfinch
Here’s something else very exciting. Something made me decide to clean the cages tonight, which meant I got to listen to NPR in the basement, and there was a story about Wapapura, which takes recording sessions to the outdoors. This is what I have always dreamed of doing, but it’s hard to carry around an electric piano, or any piano for that matter. I would love to take a string quartet to the forest and record the birds’ contributions. I am thrilled to hear someone else believes music is for sharing with the universe.
Every evening this week I’ve gotten home from work and the juvenile Ruby-Throated Hummingbird that has been visiting my feeder has returned several times. Since this is a record for my yard this year, I am always on the lookout for it, but waited until the weekend to attempt taking a picture.
All day today, I kept looking out at the hummingbird feeders and the hummer never showed up. I began to wonder if it had decided to move on.
Then this evening, right about the same time I’ve been seeing it every day, the bird came back. I suspect it does not like to show up when there are a lot of birds in the yard, which, if today is any indicator, has been all day long, of course, when there was better light. But if I put the feeders where there is less traffic, if there is such a place in my little yard, I’ll never see it.
So I stood out by the back steps this evening, focused the camera on the feeder, and waited. About 6:37 PM, I was rewarded and had just enough light to get a few images.
