It's hummer time

You take your life in your hands stepping on the back porch today, and if this is like other years, this condition will last for a couple of weeks. The hummingbird migration has started and the place is abuzz and atwitter from dawn to dusk. If you are not careful, you may be speared by a beak, or several, as the battles for feeding ports is fierce.


I have 3 small feeders up this year, and I fill them twice a day. I could go to larger feeders for convenience, but the finches like the nectar too and they can perch on the bigger ones and sip nectar as the feeder swings back and forth.

We are on the hummer migration route and we always have a lot of birds loading up for the big journey south this time of year. There are several varieties: I can tell by the size differences but the feeders are hung in a place where the birds are always backlit so it is difficult to see their colors, unfortunately.


It is a good thing that hummers are the size they are: with their fighting spirit, things might get ugly.

The entire feeding frenzy is freaking out the female Hooded Oriole, whose nest is on the same porch though 20 feet away. One of her young fledged today, and this is a dangerous time for the baby. The other young one was still in the nest this morning.