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Hummingbirds

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Photo by Andy Dawson Reid“Either you take in believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird.”

Henry Miller

The recent spell of icy weather and concomitant snowfall has made us once again even more aware of our tiny avian friends – the hummingbirds.

Now – hummingbirds are migratory creatures… except when they aren’t!

Every year each of the many species of hummingbird summons up its minuscule amount of energy and sets off on the oft-thousand mile journey to Latin America (lucky things!)… except when they don’t!

The exceptions are the Anna’s Hummingbirds – common and much loved on the west coast of the North American continent – which seemingly can’t make up their mind if they are migratory or not!

Now – many folk who put out feeders for these beautiful but tiny birds will pack them away in the autumn – not to be in demand again until the following spring. Not so those of us who have Anna’s for company. We have to keep up the nectar production year round (unless the birds decide that this year they really will fly south).

There are some who say that the reason that Anna’s have become confused as to their species characteristics is that they have been so fooled by all these year round feeders providing them with quick shots of energy that they don’t get the message that it is time to head south. In other words – it is all our fault for feeding them.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidOthers say that this is an urban myth – that hummingbirds know when it is time to fly by the diminishing daylight hours and that it would make no difference if we fed them or not. These knowledgeable folk point out that hummingbirds are a lot hardier than we think they are, that they are quite capable of feeding themselves through the winter on insects and grubs living in the bark of trees and that when it gets really cold they slow their heartbeats right down and enter a state of torpor (no jokes please!).

Either way round tender-hearted folk such as we try to provide nectar for the Anna’s throughout. This entails bringing the feeders in at night and even – when it is particularly cold – every few hours during the day so that they can thaw out again.

On very cold days I will frequently find one of these tiny creatures sitting in a bush below the hook outside our kitchen window on which I hang one of the feeders. If they are very hungry they may make a dart for the feeder even as I am trying to get it onto the hook. At other times the bird will just sit un-moving below the feeder, making no attempt to drink from it. It is not that the bird is too weak to fly up to the feeder; it is, rather, watching out for competitors. Should another bird get anywhere near to the feeder our tiny friend will chase it away vigorously, before returning once again to its perch.

Many people love hummingbirds, but I do wonder if those of us for whom they were only ever exotic and mysterious creatures from another world don’t do so with a particular fervour.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

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Photo by Andy Dawson ReidSome odds and ends from the garden…

We have recently been getting help from a couple of chaps (who were recommended to us by a good friend) with one or two of the larger tasks of which our garden was in need. Such jobs included removing five years worth of un-composted garden detritus – trimming back some over-enthusiastic trees – and (the one pictured here) trimming back a large growth of ivy that covers a dead but strategically placed tree, the which forms a most useful screen that shields our garden shed from the outside world.

As the photograph here shows – cutting back the ivy has left the whole thing looking somewhat ravaged but it will, of course, be no time at all until it has filled in again.

Our garden help – whom I shall call Gordon (for that is his name!) – advised me that we had a nest – complete with young ones – right at the top of the ivy growth, but hidden well inside it. He had left them well alone…

…as shall I – for this was no bird’s nest – but a raccoon’s! Bet you didn’t see that one coming. I did not know that raccoons made nests and certainly not so far off the ground.

Well – that certainly explains the close attention that they have been paying to our kitchen waste bin.

Anyway – here are a couple of other pretty images from the garden:

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid
What do you think this little chap is waiting for?

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid
Perhaps he has heard that the Snowbirds (the Canadian equivalent of the Red Arrow – for UK readers) are about to fly-over…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidWoah! A bit too bloomin’ fast for me to get a decent shot. By the time you have heard them – they’re gone!

Oh well!…

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This time from the Guardian – who also seem to have a bit of a Canada theme going. Who can blame them?

Hummingbirds halt controversial pipeline

Gotta love those cute little hummers!

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We are blessed this year with a veritable cornucopia of hummingbirds!

Never have I seen so many of the adorable little creatures in our yard. Never has the garden hummed so to the rhythm of their tiny beating wings. Never has the nectar level in my feeders declined at such a precipitate rate!

I’m not at all sure that I can afford to maintain the standard of living to which these perky little chaps have clearly become accustomed… The feeders need replenishing every other day. The sugar bills are horrendous!

Nonetheless…

This post is not actually concerned with the birds themselves. It is about the feeders – or one of them anyway. I bring them both in to clean and to refill at the same point, regardless of whether or not they are each quite empty. When I brought this one in there was still about an inch of nectar in the bottom of it.

There was also – a live wasp!

The mystery is – how on earth did it get in there? The only channels into the glass chamber that holds the nectar are those at the bottom through which the birds sup the fluid. These cannot be more than 1.5mm – 2mm across and are – presumably – full of the sweet sticky water of which the birds cannot get enough. I don’t see how the insect could have entered whilst I was filling the feeder – certainly not without being noticed – and I saw that it was there before I had opened the chamber today.

As I say – a total mystery!

The answer to the question – “What was a wasp doing in your hummingbird feeder?” – is, however, in this case quite literally – “The backstroke!“.

I’m here all week folks!

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Diabetics!

The Girl swears blind that the hummingbirds in our front garden (yard!) are diabetics. This is based on their slavish predeliction for the nectar that I lavish upon them at infeasibly frequent intervals. Being made by combining four parts boiled water to one part granulated sugar these must provide a healthy (or un-healthy) kick whenever they sock it back.

Now – for sure these gorgeous little friends burn off a fair bit of energy and because they are so tiny they don’t have much room to store same – but I am beginning to wonder what is going on. Our feeder at the front is suspended next to a hanging basket that is lavish with unctuous blooms – all containing stacks of that yummy nectar. But do the birds bother with that? Nope! They head straight for the feeder.

Hmmmm!

This is the work of but a few days…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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Photo by Andy Dawson Reid…I suppose!

Given that much of the north American continent has been suffering the ‘Polar Vortex‘ (not totally sure what that is exactly but Winnipeg is shown as being -21°C today, which can’t be good!) and that the BBC is forecasting “VERY heavy snow” across Europe and “Freezing conditions and chance of snow expected in Valentine’s Day chill” for the UK – we really can’t complain here on the island that the temperature has plummeted and that we have had a sprinkling of snow…

Mind you – in Siberia it is well below -40°C – but I guess they are used to it!

No – for us it is but a mild inconvenience. Since our renovation last year – new windows all round and an attic rammed with newly blown insulation (not to mention our fabby new high-efficiency gas furnace and our gas log fire) – we are snug as bugs in the proverbial rug.

The ones I feel sorry for are the hummingbirds – and that is because when I looked outside the other morning I discovered that the nectar in our hummingbird feeders had frozen! There was a tiny little bird sitting near one of the feeders looking mournful – and tired! (Gentle readers will naturally be glad to hear that I did the necessary and thawed out and replenished the feeders).

Now – according to the Rocky Point Bird Observatory here in Victoria:

“We have two species of hummingbirds that frequent Vancouver Island, the Anna’s Hummingbird and the Rufous Hummingbird. I suspect you have the Anna’s Hummingbirds as the Rufous typically migrate in August. The Anna’s Hummingbirds spend the winter in Victoria (thanks in large part to people putting out feeders for them).”

Naturally my logical mind wants to ask – if putting out feeders for the birds persuades the Anna’s to stay – what makes the Rufous Hummingbirds head south? Are they just smarter? Is this just one of those odd quirks that reveals evolution to be even more complicated that we ever imagined it to be?

Sorry – I don’t know the answer to that one…

…but I gather that this coming weekend we will see some real snow!

Brrrrr!

 

 

 

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…read all about it!

Having returned from our trip up island we discover that our hummingbirds have grown dramatically – to the extant that they can scarce any longer fit in the nest (however expandable it might be). As they are not yet quite ready to ‘fly the coop’ they spend their time patiently sitting (apparently) one atop the other on the rim of the nest, remaining as still as possible to avoid attracting predators.

It can now be but a few days until they depart. Herewith a couple more (grainy as ever) photographs…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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It occurs to me that regular readers (should any such be in attendance) might care for a progress report on the hummingbird that chose to nest on the string of festive lights that were left hanging immediately outside our front door. Any such adherents will doubtless be delighted to hear that the mother is finished her long stint of nest sitting and is now furiously feeding two rapidly growing chicks. The nest itself is starting to expand to keep pace with their increase.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidIn the above image you can just make out one chick’s fast growing beak poking out of the nest. Whilst in the egg the bill is tiny – no more than a bump – but it grows quickly once hatched. I must apologise, incidentally, for the grainy nature of these images, to which a certain amount of enlarging, cropping and processing was required for them to become at all clear. I really don’t want to impose myself any more than I have already done on these gorgeous but minute creatures.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidIn this image above (double-click to get it as large as your screen will allow) you might just be able to make out the mother delivering a regurgitated mixture of insect protein and nectar to one of the chicks. Yum!

Here below – one hopefully happy hummingbird family (sans father, naturally!)…

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

 

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Of all of the many joys that the natural world has to offer the expat from Europe one of the most enthralling is the prevalence of hummingbirds throughout the Americas. These amazing, beautiful but minscule birds are simply not found in the wild to the east of ‘the pond’.

For the price of a cheap plastic hummingbird feeder and a bag of sugar one may readily contrive countless hours of wonder and entertainment throughout the year as the diminutive creatures besport themselves before our mesmerised gaze (although not, of course, actually for our benefit!).

The nesting habits of hummingbirds are – however – considerably less public and significantly more mysterious. This – from ‘Birds & Blooms‘:

“Like a crown jewel, the nest of a hummingbird is one of the great wonders in all of nature. They are so tiny, yet so perfect. Few of us have ever seen a hummingbird nest. This is because they are nearly impossible to find. From the ground, they look like another bump on a branch. From above, an umbrella of leaves conceals them. And from the side, they look like a tiny knot, quilted with lichens, plant down and fibers.”

…and this from ‘The Spruce‘:

“Hummingbirds choose safe, sheltered locations for their nests, ensuring that their hatchlings are protected from sun, wind, rain or predators. The most common nest locations are in the forked branch of a tree, along thin plant branches or sheltered in bushes. Thicket-like areas or thorny bushes are especially preferred for the extra protection they provide.”

Why should it be – therefore – that one particular hummingbird has chosen to construct her nest (the males play no part at all subsequent to conception) in the string of festive lights that I had left up for far too long after Christmas – immediately outside our front door? Hardly a ‘safe, sheltered location’, given that most traffic into and out of the house passes immediately below the spot. Did the bird simply not notice?

Given that ‘The Spruce’ advises:

“Like all nesting birds female hummingbirds can be shy and skittish, and may abandon nests if they do not feel secure. It is always best to keep your distance from a nest and enjoy it from afar rather than risk harming the nest or chicks by being too eager to see them.”

…we have been forced to adopt a new route into and out of the house – through the garage…

We know our place!

(I do encourage the gentle reader to enlarge the attached image by double-clicking it. I didn’t want to get any closer to the nest and my little Fuji camera has only a limited zoom).

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