Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 66, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Marna, that was a great article. My caterpillars are superstars now!

Ok, so I have to talk about my hummingbird. I know I have two because Mom and I both saw them at the same time. One seems to live in the west side oak tree and the other tends toward the east side oak tree. The one I usually see is the west side with the red throat. Today, I went to get the mail and when I turned around I saw a Monarch flying around and then the hummingbird appeared! It chased the Monarch a bit and stopped to nectar on my purple cat's whiskers http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2085/ This is the first time I've seen it on something other than porterweed. I watched it through my car window as I slowly creeped forward.

Then, it seemed to call a truce with the Monarch. It flew across the entrance of my house over to the porterweed and left the other plants to the Monarch. By this point I had creeped up near my car and was pretending to be a statue. I stood there for about 3-4 minutes just watching it. It even stopped a couple times to perch on the porterweed. It looked like maybe it got an insect out of some of the flowers because I saw something white on the end of its beak. Anyway, I noticed this hummingbird didn't have the red patch like the other and I think it was a little bigger, too. Does that mean it's a female? I can't remember.

So the weird part is when I finally had to go in the house. I took a slow step forward and the hummingbird came at me in three little spurts. I stopped, and it stopped. I moved again, and again it darted toward me in short little spurts of flight. We went through the routine one more time before I moved forward like a normal human and then it kind of circled and flew back to the east side tree. Oh, and the first time it tweeted while it flew at me! The one with the red takes one glimpse at me and goes flying off so I was surprised to see this one almost challenge me. I don't know much about hummingbird behavior so you'll have to enlighten me. And are they known to chase each other, because they've been doing that lately?

In other news, my Tersa Sphix moths are silking everything together to make a little nest. I have to say, I am quite impressed with their silkwork. No simple sling for these guys!