Hummingbird Morning Miracle

The feeders for orioles have little dimples or cups for the jelly. I used to put an orange half in the center with the post through it, but the finches kept ganging the feeder. If you can find a place to hang the feeder, the ants might not find the jelly. There are a few palm trees in the neighborhood that I'm sure help to attract them, too.

Unfortunately, we have to have our house perimeter sprayed, so that helps control the ants somewhat. Tried every natural way on earth to keep them out of the house, but nothing worked, so I have a guy who sprays minimally for the ants and black widows (who were also finding their way into the house). We still have lots of bugs in the garden to keep the birds and plants happy. Those phoebes are fun to watch!

SW, what a cool, cool story! And the pics are unbelievable!

Thanks so much for sending it along.
Linda

how fantastic ! - your hen looks like it's trying to run away ... I liked the pic of Blackbeard as well.

I was weeding yesterday and our resident male Anna was divebombing me whenever he thought I was too close to "his" feeder. I put out 3 feeders staggered around so the little girls have a chance to swoop in. Oh they can get in some fights, chasing eachother around. Interesting - when he fights off another male we'll notice a female take the chance to get herself a good drink. Such fun!

The orioles are beautiful, I hope I get a chance to see one.

I'll take sparring hummingbirds over those blasted noisy wild parrots any day.

There is an orange canary that comes back here pretty regularly, and the resident Anna wants no part of it. I think the canary is an escapee from someone's house.

And I'd take your noisy wild parrots any day over our ##$%@^ crows!

I'll see your ##$%@^ crows and raise you an attack mockingbird....

We've got those crows, too. Hundreds of them ! Nothing that big should be allowed to fly.

They are pounding and pecking on our roof, skylights, porch cover. They drop garbage all over the place and scare my birds in the house. Argggghhhh! Even the frog woke up this morning and croaked at them.

Give me a mockingbird any day. In fact, if ours hadn't moved - don't know what happened to him - we probably wouldn't have so many crows!

OK, you win---yours sound like Hitchcock material!!

lol! love the bird poker game

I don't want to win!!

Down the road from us in the Asian pear orchard, they have an automated "boom" gun that goes off all day long when their fruit is ripe. I think I'd kill the owners if I lived closer. My grandma used to hang glass wind chimes to keep the birds out of her fruit trees----much more pleasant!

Ka, do you know what draws the crows to your area? We used to have cornfields behind us, and I've always figured they just stayed on after the houses were built there.

There was also a place here years ago that raised homing pigeons. All our neighbors have to deal with that, but one of our cats considers the roof her private property during the day, so we never have an issue.

Singing Wolf, LOVED your hummer story, my children are always bringing me home critters, feather and furred to rescue. Good job!
If you keep the food nearby, He/she might always come back.

As for the bird poker, I'll take all your birds and up them with the grackles that blow in like tornadoes here. HATE those loud, ugly things
and they push all my songbirds out of nest and groceries. Wish someone would find them good to eat!

Mindy

Mindy, what's a grackle? As for the attack mockers . . . I'd miss the drama in my neighbor's yard across the street as the cat sits in the middle of a flower bed stalking the mocker who stalks the cat. What a HOOT to watch! They leave my dogs alone, but the dogs are black and perhaps the mockers can't see them.

I'm awaiting the arrival of my twice-annual visit from the finches. It's always a balance between the squirrels and the finches as to when I place the finch feeders out, despite having the cleanest finch seed possible. If I'm not careful the squirrels and/or tree rats will munch holes in the feeders.

Linda

we have a pack of crows here too - but yours sound TOTALLY EVIL! I kick the kids soccer balls up on the roof to get the pigeons off - they poop like crazy. I haven't broken a window yet and they definitely aren't roosting up there like they were before we moved in.

I do love the red tailed hawk that sits high in the tree (we have an empty field in front of us - it will be a cul-de-sac but they stopped building houses - probably only 3 or 4 houses left to do). He's beautiful, and he/she had a friend sitting with him in the tree last week - I was hoping to see a nest ??!

The attack mockingbird who lives here had a running game going with one of our cats (who died last fall at 16, so she was a brave age). Bingo would get up under some foliage on the fence and the mockingbird would dive-bomb her, getting closer and closer each time. They'd play this game for literally hours. The bird would almost hover over the cat, pecking at her. And Bingo would just lay there and put up with it for some reason---she never went after the bird. I think the bird misses her now.

When we first moved here, we had hawks overhead every day, but since so many houses have been built we don't see them as often. I still hear them once in a while when the soaring weather is right, but they don't nest nearby any more. I miss them a lot!

This message was edited Feb 22, 2009 3:30 PM

The crows only bother me in the fall when the walnuts are ripe.
Crows can be tricksters, and messy too! My across the street neighbor couldn't handle them on his house anymore and started having his kids spot for him while he shot rock salt at them. Worked, but needed repetition (didn't kill them, at worst stunned them). Was really funny to watch. Crows will eat carrion, among other things.
Usually if you have a hawk living on or near your place, the crows won't be coming in. Hawks prey on the young crows.
KC, I'll trade your crows for the coyotes making my dogs bark at night.
starting2luv, I've heard grackles, crows are just as bad. Glad you're enjoying the thread. Wish it was only my kids that brought me critters. They've taken to showing up on their own!

Hummer update, I moved the feeder under the cover of the porch. The little guy doesn't seem to mind. Since it is starting to rain, he won't get drenched while he feeds. Lots of places under there for him to perch. Mom can still watch him from the window.
Will try to get more photos soon.
WIB,
SW

I do go out and scare the crows off. We have some HUGE hawks hunting here all the time, plus smaller ones, so I'm surprised they don't deter the crows. I check my compost pile, but I don't see any evidence they're getting into that, but one of our neighbors told us his trash bags get torn open at night and I suspect that's one of their attractants, because I see them with food bits (and they drop them in our driveway pond!). The other thing that brings them is our water sources, a large pond in back and fountain in front. We used to get them kind of seasonally, I expect when they were breeding, but then most would go away until the following year. Now they are here all year. :-(

We have coyotes, but no dogs, and the others in the neighborhood don't seem to bark too long, nor do the coyotes - just periodically. Grackles were a big thing in Costa Rica - I didn't find their calls as annoying, though.

Glad the hummer is hanging around, SW. You've probably got him attached by now. :-)

SW - you are taking good care of your little hummer, even guarding him from the rain!

We had a little Anna in Oregon that would perch on our apple tree guarding his feeder - even in the snow! I always wanted to make him a little coat. They can survive quite cold temps.

LOL--I'm picturing you dressing a hummer in a little swallowtail tux....!~

LOL! They sort of hibernate at night to conserve energy don't they? A tiny tux! LOL!
WIB,
SW

You'll never guess what I saw today! One of the ladies at my pottery class was tending two rescued baby hummers! They were so CUTE. She feeds them every hour with a tiny syringe, so they go everywhere with her. They were fully feathered and she said they are just starting to move their wings, so she thinks they will be flying in another two weeks. I'll check in with her next week and see how they are. She even harvests fruit flies for them for a protein source.

Apparently she's been doing this for years and once was involved with a hummingbird exhibit at the zoo. She said every day at 2 and 4 they would release fruit flies and all the hummers would dart all over eating them - it was quite a show.

They eat fruit flies? Wow, I thought they only ate nectar. Learn something new every day! ^_^
Hope she takes photos!
WIB,
SW

They need a protein source, SW. The nectar we give them provides more energy so they can go get bugs. And they are very good at it, too! :-)

Might explain why I have been seeing them around the strawberry tree.
WIB,
SW

Oh wow, that must have been so neat to see the babies! I can't imagine hand-feeding such little critters.

I'd heard that hummingbirds eat small flies, but had never seen it until last summer. We were standing near the pond at dusk, and all of a sudden a hummingbird started zipping over the pond in weird zig zag patterns, almost like an invisible connect the dot game. I'd never seen that type of behavior before, and it was especially noticeable because the "pond" is just a small water feature on the patio. I went upstairs and looked down on the action, and noticed that there were all these tiny flies above the pond, and the hummer was zipping around catching some dinner. :-)

I'm convinced that the combo of my fish and my hummers and my phoebes is why I never get mosquito bites in my own yard. As soon as I leave my property, the tiny screams of "DINNER IS SERVED" are deafening.....

Mosquito fish help too. I never get bit at home, but they feast on me in Texas!

Hummer update. Haven't really seen the hummer in the last couple of days. I was busy with chores and Mom's Physical Therapist. Today, I went out on the patio to fetch a tool, and wondered if I was going to be dive bombed. Well, I was, but not by one hummer, but two! Wasn't able to get photos, way too fast. I didn't even have my camera with me.
I did get these photos.

Another.

In motion!

Feeding.

A cropped version of my favorite photo of the day.

My fave for the day. Blackbeard the big black cat, napping about 10 feet away from the feeder. Hummer perched on the top of the old bird cage holder. Looked like he was napping.
Right after I snapped this shot, I heard a tiny chainsaw roar, and the other hummer drove off the one perching.
Mom is getting a kick out of watching them. So am I.
WIB,
SW

LOL! Great slide show!

Oh, I especially like that last pic of Blackbear napping. It's so nice you can enjoy those moments with your Mom, SW. Dad must be looking down from heaven and smiling ... Thanks for sharing the moments with me.

Mosquitos are weird--I used to get eaten alive back by them when I lived in the Midwest or when I traveled to Mexico, but out here I think I've been bit maybe once or twice in 7 years. I guess California mosquitoes don't think I'm very tasty. I just hope they never talk to the Ohio mosquitoes and find out the truth! LOL

Totally off topic ecrane, but I read somewhere that they prefer type O blood. What type do you have? If it is unusual it might be more tasty! LOL!
I figure that between the 'squito fish, the birds, and the fact I've even given my unfriendly neighbors fish, not to mention we just are not the world greatest breeding ground for mosquitos, being in the desert. We're spoiled that way. I think that there are just a whole lot more hungry mosquitos back east. They've been doing a lot of work eradicating the West Nile Virus mosquito breeding grounds around here.
WIB,
SW

I don't remember what blood type I am...I think AB but I'm not sure. It can't be blood type though because the Ohio and Indiana mosquitos liked me just fine, it's just the California ones that leave me alone. I see them in my yard and get them in my house sometimes and they still don't bite me--can't explain it!

They don't bite me here either and I'm A neg. Go figure. I show up in TX and it's like there is a neon sign over my head advertising fresh blood! LOL!
Mom is really happy, she has been watching the h.bird feeder this morning. She says that there are 3 hummers working that feeder. I'm going to have to clean it and refill it soon. Hope to get some more photos later today! I'm glad she is enjoying all the activity. ^_^
GTG,
WIB,
SW

Did you find the binoculars for her yet?