Late Summer Musings

It looks like the bluebirds are only going to have one brood this year. They are probably young birds taking their first shot at raising a family. Since they were successful this year, they will most likely be back next year and raise two broods. I still see two of the juvenile bluebirds around pretty often.

I love this time of year when the cardinals bring the juvenile birds to the feeders. By this time they have learned to eat by themselves and don't be nearly as much to be fed.

A Carolina Wren is calling outside right now. I need to get some suet in my feeder for him.

I had kind of an interesting experience on Saturday. It wasn't on the property. It was a the Gulf Coast Christian Youth Camp in Columbus. One of the kids at the camp found a female hummingbird on the ground at the gym. I'm not sure if it was a Ruby-throated or a Black-chinned. Anyway, she appeared to be stunned and I figured she had run into something like one of the lights at the top of the gym. So I held her for a little while and let the kids see her. Then I went to put her on a branch and she fell off. I picked her back up and held her in my hand. She started scratching at her neck with her feet. She arched her back and made a little squeak and then just died in my hand. I've never watched a hummingbird die. I don't know what did it, but it must have been pretty traumatic.

Fall migration isn't too far off. We should start seeing the migrants come through soon. I have seen more Baltimore Orioles in the fall than I have in the spring. This spring was pretty good for them, so I'm hoping that I see lots of them this fall.

Summertime Hummingbird and Rain!

For the second year in a row, I've had a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at my feeder for the majority of the summer. It's a female, as was the bird last year. She's here often enough that I don't think she's nesting anywhere because she would have to leave her eggs way too long and too often. But, it's been kind of neat to have her the past couple of years while I wait for the large groups in late August and September. Here's a video I shot last September of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at my feeders.



You know it's rained a lot when you look out on your front yard and see 15 - 20 White Ibis poking around looking for something to eat. That's what happened yesterday while the rain was falling. Since July 1, we've had 9.5" of rain at our house. I love that because of the lower temperatures, but hate it because I know what it means for mosquito numbers.