...Ready for anything!

I was going to blip a different bird today, but when I looked back at all my shots for the day, this is the one that I liked the best. So, at the risk of creating hummingbird-overload...here's Mr. P-Hummie. Again.

It was rainy today, which is always a sure guarantee for lots of bird action. So, I got my work done and headed out to the deck to sit under the gazebo and see what came along. And I wasn't disappointed!

While I was busy snapping shots of the hummers, I got that creepy, back-of-the-neck feeling that I wasn't alone so I whipped around and found a pair of big brown eyes peering back at me. One of the Olympic Squirrels wondering if there was a soccer game today. Or peanuts... Then, I suddenly spied a female American Redstart, a member of the warbler family and a bird that I saw for the first time ever only a week ago. Pretty cool! Also had a very drippy goldfinch who was keeping time with the house finches. Blue jays and grackles came and went. And the poor, bedraggled cardinals ... oh, my. Talk about bad hair days... this one looks as if she is doing an impression of a turkey vulture. I will be glad when they are done molting - it's embarrassing.

The stars of the day, however, were the hummers. At the butterfly bush buffett... Posing by the foxglove.... Challenging the other hummers ... and practicing for the next Olympics ... it was all hummers, all day.

The resident population in our yard seems to be 15-20, although it is impossible to get an exact count. I am going through about 6 to 8 cups of sugar water a day right now. That comes out to about 5 pounds of sugar a week. It's no wonder they are so amped up all the time! If I had that much sugar I'd be flying around attacking everything in sight, too. Last night one of the young chickadees ventured too close to the hummer battlefield and got knocked off its perch! The hubs keeps telling me that he is going to be impaled any day now. (Very dramatic, honey.)

Hoping everyone has had a great Tuesday!