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Thursday, February 10, 2011

HAWKS vs. HUMMINGBIRDS, an update

Our small neighborhood hawk managed to knock one of our hummingbird feeders off onto the deck and break it. I've chased him away a few times, and unfortunately found the head of a hummer. So, we didn't replace that feeder for many days.

Haven't seen him around recently, so we put up another feeder. However, this one is larger and we worried whether the suction cups holding it to the window would let go.  To keep the weight light, it only has a small amount of liquid in it. As I write this, the hummingbirds haven't returned to that feeder yet. It is the one that's most exposed.

Notice the bird feeder for seed in the background of the photo above. We've only recently started using it again. When it first went up the seed feeders disappeared. Turns out that a black bear was helping himself to them. The first year he actually returned the empty feeders the next day. We did refill them, and the smart bear took them again! Eventually, we quit putting them out. Haven't seen him for a very long time now, so we put new ones out this year to encourage our migratory birds who arrive each Spring.

This hummingbird feeder is hidden in a secluded section of the house and is attached to a bedroom window on a bumpout that faces north. The birds using it are reticent to allow us near them, but they are also safer from predators.

Birds that come to our covered south deck are the most tame, and in the past have sometimes landed on a feeder while I'm still carrying it outside and haven't put it up yet. That happens most often in the Spring when there are at least four varieties of hummingbirds fighting to get to the sugar water.

This time of year, we still only have the Anna's hummingbirds that stay all year round and don't migrate like the others. All of them are beautiful.

Need to get the swallow nest boxes (bird houses) down to clean them out and have them back up before the middle of March when the swallows usually return. One year we had a bee hive in one (not honey bees) and a pair of mice in another.

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