For several weeks now, we have had our summer population of hummingbirds -- hundreds and hundreds of hummingbirds at our feeders. Currently we're keeping 7 feeders out, each with 8 feeding stations -- room for 56 hummingbirds -- but every morning and every evening (the most busy feeding times), all the stations are full and hummers are waiting in line. There's a kind of "hummingbird cloud" all around the feeders. The hummers are quite accustomed to our presence, and we can go out and stand right in this cloud -- they dart and buzz all around our heads, sometimes even landing on our hats, our ears, or our glasses!
One diminutive female seemed to like perching in our pampas grass -- she liked it so well that I was able to get quite close to her to take her picture. My lens was only a few inches from her when I took this photo! When I finally did get too close for her comfort, she whisked off at a blinding speed, straight through the heart of the (very dense!) pampas grass -- then whizzed around to right behind my head, hovered for a few seconds, and then zipped straight back to her original perch!
Another female seemed to be particularly fond of our potato flower. She had a regular flight pattern from the feeder to "her" perch in the potato flower tree, where she'd rest for about 60 seconds, then zip back to the feeder for another tipple -- and then back to the potato tree. If you follow the individual hummers, you'll soon see that many of them have such patterns, for at least hours at a time. I haven't yet figured out if they maintain these patterns over periods of days or longer...Some more hummer pictures for your enjoyment...
No comments:
Post a Comment