HolyCoast: The Homebuilder
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Thursday, May 06, 2010

The Homebuilder

Despite the free fall in the Dow today, not all homebuilders are being stymied by the recession. I went out to water the backyard and heard the familiar buzz of a nearby hummingbird. We have lots of them around here (they really like the eucalyptus trees that border our neighborhood). The buzz seemed rather insistent and the bird was hovering nearby keeping an eye on me.

As I walked back in the house I noticed some new construction and the reason for the nervous hummer. We have a set of lights that run around our backyard patio cover.

A closer look at one of the lights shows that there has been an addition to the property.
Closer yet and you see the hummingbird nest which is being built in the crown of the light.
I took a shot from above to see if anything was in the next yet. No eggs, but it looks like it's almost ready. What you're looking at is about the size of a half dollar.
I was hoping to catch a photo of the homebuilder, so I set up a chair and waited for awhile.  She didn't return to the nest, but I did spot her sitting on a vine a few feet away doing some preening.
I'm not a birdwatcher, but I did a little research and she appears to be a female Allen's Hummingbird, one of six hummingbird species found around here.
She sat there for several minutes carefully cleaning and arranging her feathers.
I'm hoping she's not an endangered species because I don't want the Feds coming in and turning my backyard into a wildlife refuge.

2 comments:

Larry Sheldon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Larry Sheldon said...

Bird watching is good for the soul.

Seriously.

Get a humming bird feeder (I like one that looks like a 1-quart or 1-liter IV bottle from years ago with a flat-red disc with holes on to. Lots of people like one that just looks like the red disc.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=300569529211%3A56270874&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee # One of mine is visible behind the Oriole.)

I don't like bee-guards (little birds have been known to ruin their beaks in them).

Make a syrup of 4 cups of cool (tap cold) water and a cup of white sugar.

No food color (bad for the little birds--and some people). No honey (really bad for little birds). No anything but water and sugar.

Replace when it gets cloudy (will depend on ants and how much bird traffic you get).

After a while, they will come to the feeder while you are carrying it out, and fuss when you take it down for cleaning. They will sometimes sit on a finger and drink from the palm of your hand.