Monday, July 22, 2013

Hummers Return

Last summer we had to replace our hummingbird feeder as the old one finally bit the dust. The birds would have nothing to do with it and boycotted us.

Well they have finally decided to accept the new feeder. Beginning in mid June we had one or two hummingbirds at a time until this week when we now seem to have a dozen or so. I have seen broad-tailed, calliope, and rufous so far. This female is sort of giving me the gimlet eye as if to say, "Why are you pointing that black and white tube at me?"

The light wasn't quite right to get the bright chin feathers on this male calliope to light up. I'll have to keep working on that. If you look closely, it appears he has a small insect in his bill. 

3 comments:

Daniel Gauss said...

Same thing happened here.. suddenly we had 9-10 birds at the feeders tonight, including a Calliope, which has been here now three years running, but never for more than one day (the Chihuahuan desert is not their preferred habitat, so they're moving to higher climes). Interesting.

Gil said...

Reid, I envy your western hummers. Here on the Georgia coastal plain, it's a wide variety as long as it's Ruby Throated. During the winter we have western visitors on occasion. They are considered casual, not rare migrants. I have wintered Black-chinned and Rufous.
Rarer than the above is the Calliope.

Reid Farmer said...

Gil, I got really spoiled when we lived in Southern California, where we regularly saw Anna's, Costa's, and black-chinned in addition to everything we have here in Colorado.

When we lived in the southern Sierras we used to get lots of birds, too. Right before migration time they would commonly drain a quart bottle of nectar in a day