Hummers in the Snow

 

As I wrote to my wonderful Brother-In-Law Paul, who lives in France, I had a little adventure yesterday morning when I brought the hummingbird feeders out. The Annas often stay around all winter long, so I put food out for them.

The trouble was, the feeders were freezing. There were actual frosty crystals, quite beautiful, inside the feeder within a half hour. So under the watchful eye of my tiny hummer friends, I rigged two garage lights to keep the nectar from turning to ice.

 The hummers are so cute. They are quite interested in all I do. They'll hover just a foot or so away, zooming in every so often to get a closer look. Sometimes they will land on the trees in the nearby hedge and talk to me.

Dad could imitate the birds so closely many of his feathered friends thought he was one of them. I have a little bit of his gifting--so I'm able to "talk" to the birds as well.

Yesterday I saw nut hatches, a flock of tiny hazel backed finches, along with our Oregon Finches. I saw an entire flock of fat red-breasted robins. I haven't seen Robins around here in a long time. What fun to see so many of them. There was a flock of juncos too--they are tiny feisty birds and are quite fun to watch. We also have three or four squirrels who regularly peruse the yard for seeds, nuts and the like. They are grey squirrels.

It began to snow around 3 a.m. How can anyone sleep when the snow is falling? The kid in me hopes there is just enough to make a snowman in the front yard.

I put the hummingbird feeder out just before dawn. The hummers were already out. My favorite little buddy was sitting on the back of the garden bench. As soon as I had the feeder and light set up, they were eating. I believe we have four little hummers wintering over. Two eat at the feeder, while the other two are swashbuckling in the air. They like to stay in our evergreen English Elderberry tree.

It is still snowing. But just an inch or so, as the flakes are very small. The temperature is around 25.

Have a lovely day!