Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Hummers....

No, I am not posting about those obnoxiously large vehicles...I'm talking about the birds. Hummingbirds. I've always been fascinated by hummingbirds but had NEVER seen one until we moved to TX. They are just the coolest little animals!! I've put in, what I call, my hummingbird/butterfly garden outside our kitchen. I've planted lots of wildflower seeds and other brightly colored flowers. I put up a hummingbird feeder and a finch feeder. I thought it would be weeks if not months before I got anyone at my feeders. I was wrong (at least in the case of the hummingbirds)-no takers at the finch feeder yet. I have one little hummer (I think ruby-throated) who comes regularly many times a day and will tolerate little (and big noses) pressed to the glass right next to the feeder watching him. I hope when the migration begins in earnest he'll bring some friends.

Oh, and Spooky had her kittens. Grace and I went looking but couldn't find them. She comes by a couple times a day now looking for food. This morning she had two BIG ole tomcats escorting her. Hopefully they haven't killed the kittens. :-(

To get anyone not in the 'know' up to speed: Spooky is one of the many feral(wild) cats that we have here. I feed them at night. Spooky is a little female who has come to trust us and will let me handle her and pet her. Another is Blacky (tom) I'm certain he was a dumped pet because he is WAY to friendly to be wild-he'd like nothing better to be our housecat and he is so UNafraid of Murphy it's laughable. The rest of the bunch (about 5-10) are totally wild and skittish but they keep the snakes down so we feed them to keep them around. My neighbor and I are going to start catching and fixing (letting the vets do it) these cats. Blacky has an appt with the snippers in early April.

3 comments:

MamaEscandon said...

I love hummingbirds! I think I may get a little feeder for our back patio area. I think Clare would like it. We have these really strange birds outside our bedroom window though, they chirp ALL night! Ugh.

JoAnnC. said...

I LOVE hummingbirds, too! I think I'll run out today and get some feeders. Hopefully some will fly our way!

Anonymous said...

Way cool that you like hummers. I plant some flowers around that attract them. I enjoy watching them on the flowers more than the feeders. Wait until you get more the males start to attack one another. We get a lot here in NM. My Mom would get some at her house in NJ. In NM the males make a whirring noise when they fly and the females are silent.

Enjoying the blog and glad you got some rain. We had rain last week that will make for a nice spring for us here.