Those Humdinger Hummers

I've had hummingbirds around other houses where I've lived in the past, but I've never seen so many as what we have here. Twyla and I have had as many as 16-18 in our field of view through the sliding glass door at the back of the house. We estimate that there are easily more than 30.

This necessitated getting another 32 ounce bottle feeder. The problem is; the 100 lb. test monofilament line broke at the connection and so the plastic base crashed to the ground and broke last night. I had already purchased some solid steel wire, used for electric fencing, to replace the existing line, but I wouldn't do it yesterday, because it was Shabbat.

Well, last night I was climbing up through the brush to string up the new wire to the young poplar tree on the hill and back down to the pulley on the house. But now we are down to the single eight ounce feeder, which the hummingbirds can drain easily in about 4 - 5 hours. We will try to swing by Fred's this afternoon to see if they have any decent hummer feeders.

I know that it may be hard to believe that we have that many hummers, so I'm hoping to capture a minute or two of video to post here so you can see how amazing it is. There is nothing quite as awe inspiring as watching more than a dozen hummers vying for space on a couple of feeders. They are all Ruby Throats, though the majority, or at least 75% seem to be female, or there are a lot of juvenile males that haven't gotten their ruby colored throats yet. They could also be called "Emerald Backs". The females don't have the ruby throats but their backs have that gorgeous emerald glittery look.

Climbing the hill at 22:00 hours (10:pm) in heavy brush is not fun. Then I seemed to "sense" something moving about, but couldn't quite make it out at first. Then I caught some glimpses of bats flitting about, just a few feet above my head. Apparently I had scared up some insects by my moving about and was creating some easy access to a meal. It was then that I realized that I had never noticed that there really were never any moths or other nocturnal insects hanging around the one lone street lamp that sits on the northeast corner of our lot. Gotta love them bats.

If you like reading about our hummers, please leave a comment below.

B'rakhot Adonai,

Moshe