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  • #1

    The hummingbirds have arrived!

    Well,a week ago anyways....it means it's finally summer here,though we actually had snow on May 1st & they were flying in it!

    I know my fellow Americans have hummers too but here we get as many as 5 different species,black-chinned,broadtail,ruby throat,rufous & calliope.The black-chinned are always 1st,followed by ruby throats,then the others.We always have quite a few,but back in '07,after a really strong El Niño winter we had the most we'd ever seen,we went through (I'm not kidding or guesstimating,I carried the damn bags in!) 100 lbs of sugar that summer!!! Our feeders hold a quart apiece,we have 5 & we were filling at least 2 a day.

    Anyways,for our poor benighted foreign friends who don't have the pleasure of seeing these beautiful diminutive birds here's a couple of pics I've taken:

    A calliope,ain't he pretty?


    Yep,he's perched on my finger
    "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you.This is the principal difference between a man and a dog"

    Mark Twain
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  • #2
    BEAUTIFUL!!! I just love hummingbirds. We have a species called Anna's that stays around on the Island year-round, and quite often we end up putting feeders out while its snowing so they have some food!! I'll have to see if I can dig up the pictures I took in November of a couple feeding with the snow falling in the background!!!

    My Dad has a bunch of slides somewhere from 30+ years ago of my Mom taking a feeder out to hang on her greenhouse, and 3 hummers feeding from it as she held it and walked to hang it!!!
    The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

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    • #3
      What beautiful pictures! Either you are very, very patient or those hummingbirds are quite tame. It's hard to get a good photograph of something that small and speedy.
      I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
      My LiveJournal
      A page we can all agree with!

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      • #4
        Quoth XCashier View Post
        What beautiful pictures! Either you are very, very patient or those hummingbirds are quite tame. It's hard to get a good photograph of something that small and speedy.


        Hummingbirds, to be hummingbirds, must be the cheekiest things ever. It's like they know they're too quick for anything to touch them! They are very curious, very friendly.
        EDIT: lucky bastard= Freddy
        EEDIT: glad you aren't dyeing the feed, that can be bad for them, and is pointless at best
        Last edited by teh_blumchenkinder; 05-08-2011, 04:18 AM.
        "Is it the lie that keeps you sane? Is this the lie that keeps you sane?What is it?Can it be?Ought it to exist?"
        "...and may it be that I cleave to the ugly truth, rather than the beautiful lie..."

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        • #5
          Not only can they be cheeky, but they can have cojones of birds 10x their size!!! Every summer, when they get to feeding & breeding, if one of us walks out our front door, they dive-bomb us!!!!
          The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

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          • #6
            Gorgeous little buggers! We have them here but I haven't see any yet this year. They don't hang around the city much, although I did see one years ago...on September 30!...hovering around the rowan tree on the front lawn at our old house. The color of the berries---bright orange---attracted him, but unfortunately we didn't have a feeder.
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              Quoth DeltaSierra View Post
              Not only can they be cheeky, but they can have cojones of birds 10x their size!!!
              I've had one pull hair out of my head!

              I was outside doing my gardening(this was back when I was about 15), and I heard this humming noise and felt a tug on my hair, I turn around and there's this ruby-throated hummingbird with a small beakfull of my hair! It tugged once more and flew off with about 5-6 strands. seemed quite pleased with itself.
              Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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              • #8
                Nice pictures.

                A friend of mine from HS and his neighbor (at his "camp") had a contest to see who could have the largest feeder - i think it was a draw then they each put up a 20-gallon water tank.

                It was great to see them hovering around the feeders, though.
                Quote Dalesys:
                ... as in "Ifn thet dawg comes at me, Ima gonna shutz ma panz!"

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                • #9
                  Hummingbirds aren't as bad as mockingbirds - those little birdies are mean. One built a nest in our dog's favorite shade tree. He'd go to lay under it, and the bird would dive bomb him until he went away.
                  "Even arms dealers need groceries." ~ Ziva David, NCIS

                  Tony: "Everyone's counting on you, just do what you do best."
                  Abby: "Dance?" ~ NCIS

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                  • #10
                    Quoth BlaqueKatt View Post
                    I've had one pull hair out of my head!

                    I was outside doing my gardening(this was back when I was about 15), and I heard this humming noise and felt a tug on my hair, I turn around and there's this ruby-throated hummingbird with a small beakfull of my hair! It tugged once more and flew off with about 5-6 strands. seemed quite pleased with itself.
                    Yep, birds use human hair to build their nests. That little bird had an awful lot of chutzpah, though!
                    I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
                    My LiveJournal
                    A page we can all agree with!

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                    • #11
                      Quoth XCashier View Post
                      What beautiful pictures! Either you are very, very patient or those hummingbirds are quite tame. It's hard to get a good photograph of something that small and speedy.
                      Thanks,they're not really tame,it's just that they don't see us as predators,we're too slow

                      After a few days they're not scared & all I did to get that pic was stand there for about 2 minutes with my finger on the perch,he came & landed & I was able to get that pic.

                      [We tell other people not to dye the food.

                      Hummers are the most agressive of all birds,the best quote I ever read from an expert was "If they were they size of crows we'd have to wear combat helmets just to walk in the woods!"
                      Last edited by Frantic Freddie; 05-09-2011, 01:29 AM.
                      "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you.This is the principal difference between a man and a dog"

                      Mark Twain

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