Summer of the Hummer!
A few evenings ago, as I was sitting in a chair in the living room, I noticed a little humming bird sitting atop the shepherd’s hook that holds a pot of petunias on the back deck. As soon as I grabbed the camera, the little birdie just *knew* I was coming and took off!
Well, I sat back down, and as the dusk was beginning to settle in for the evening, the little hummer appeared once again on the bracket. I slowly picked up my camera, and shot the picture through the French doors of the dining room. If you look carefully, you will see the tiny bird sitting at the top!
As I watched, the rain began to fall rather hard, but the little hummer was unfazed by the weather. In fact, that little hummer sat out there until it was nearly dark! The above picture is of the potted petunias. I make mention of these because, in my ignorance, I placed them previously on my south-facing front porch. The only problem there is that the porch is quite shaded by a stand of trees in the front yard. When my parents came to visit at the beginning of July, my poor petunias only had one lonely flower! After rectifying my mistake, the plant took off and is full of beautiful purple, white, and red flowers! Hard to believe my northern exposure back deck supplies so much more sunshine!
This summer has been so surprising as far as hummingbirds go. I usually made about 2 cups of nectar for them in years past. This would last about a week, and I usually ended up dumping some of it, as I changed it out once a week.
This year, I am making well over a quart of nectar twice a week! Those little hummingbirds seem to have multiplied and brought the whole family with them! I have never seen so many before. This morning, as I was relaxing in the hot tub, I saw four hummers feeding on the back deck feeder. This was a first! And the NOISE! Hummingbirds tend to be very territorial, and when another comes near, they often squeak and flutter and dive bomb one another! It certainly provides a great deal of entertainment…..rain or shine!
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Those little humming birds sure are cute! I wish we got them here. I don’t know if it’s because of the city or what, but they don’t seem to come here. My neighbor has that beautiful trumpet vine that should attract them, but they just don’t seem to be around.
I am not sure what their native habitat is, but I do know they seem to be attracted to the country. Gma and Gpa do have them in the city, though, but there are lots of trees nearby, too. Those pictures aren’t the greatest, as they were taken through the French doors while I was sitting by the front door. That is almost 36 feet away! Hard to believe, isn’t it? Plus, it was starting to get dark outside quite quickly!