On the Front Porch - Springtime Discovery

[Marilee]

While enjoying the Spring morning on the front porch today, we saw something we'd never seen before!
At first we thought it was a teeny-weeny hummingbird (about an inch long or so), but I got up close and saw that it was a moth! A Hummingbird Moth. I took a few pictures and a my hubby caught a few seconds of video.

(This cool morning made possible for me and my hubby, in part, because of dialysis )

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10214170442087724.1073741839.1614087120&type=1&l=6c38530291

[willowtreewren]

Nice.....

I stepped out to check my flowers yesterday and scared a hummer away.

Aleta

[LorinnPKD]

Oh, that's beautiful, Marilee!

Today in Colorado we have both snow and daffodils... Spring is a tug of war here!

[Marilee]

Hi Aleta  (that's also my sister's name )! The hummer will be back for sure - they're bold!

Oh, Lorinn, I love daffodils in the snow - I never see that down here in Albuquerque, but it's so pretty (as long as you don't have to shovel, eh?).

[Charlie B53]

We have a bunch of flowering bushes I'm not sure of the spelling, Crown of Sharon maybe.  The flowers close at night.  Anyway, the Hummingbirds love them and stop by all the time during the season.

Until we moved here I never knew the Hummingbird migrated like many other birds.  Thousands of miles.  That's a  long way for those itty bitty wings!

Twice a bird has found itself stuck inside our house or garage, kept banging into windows trying to get out.  I caught them by hand, took them outside and released them.  Both times the bird just hovered there looking at me as if surprised I didn't eat it.  Ever since these birds have visited me annually, stopping in front of my face as if to say 'Hello" before moving on.

[Marilee]

Charlie, I love this story! You've gotten to experience something few people have. I love that they give you a nod each year!

While camping one year, I watched a hummingbird dive into the ashes in a firegrill. Again and again. I asked the ranger if he knew why and he said he thought it was for the minerals in the ash: It was nesting season and the bird needed good shells on her eggs.

We have a few Red Yuccas in our front yard that attract hummers (they get long-throated flowers too), and recently we've seen a few buzzing through, looking, but the flowers aren't in bloom yet, so they move on. Any day now!

[willowtreewren]

That IS a wonderful story, Charlie. Here we know to put out the feeders when the azaleas start to bloom because that means the hummers will be back. One year I hug the feeder, took a step back from it and said, "Okay, hummingbirds, come and get it!"

At that very moment a hummer came to the feeder. I could have reached out to touch it.

We have so many flowering plants right now that they aren't too interested in the feeders, yet.

Marilee, I imagine your sister is of the same vintage as I am. I was named from the Prince Valient comic strip! Most of the Aletas I know of have that honor! LOL!

Aleta

[LorinnPKD]

Oh, I love that, Charlie!  I once caught a tiny mouse in my apartment in Queens and after a night of captivity, I let it go in Central Park the next morning on my way to work.  The next spring, I'm standing next to the pond in Central Park about 100 yards from where I let the mouse go, and what do I see but this tiny mouse hopping right up to me!  It stopped and stared at me like it knew who I was, and after a minute or two, it hopped away.

And Marilee, it sounds like you're having a beautiful spring with flowers soon to come! And with you in ABQ, we're practically neighbors!  Hi neighbor!

[Marilee]

 

[Paul]

Useless humming bird fact:

In Europe it used to be thought that humming birds were born in flight and spent their entire life flying, never landing on anything. This is because the only specimens that had been seen in Europe were stuffed ones brought back by sailors. Humming birds legs are fragile, and never survived the primitive taxidermy of the day, so the specimens seen in Europe had no legs, hence the belief that they could not land so spent their entire life in flight.

[Marilee]

Paul, that's a wonderful factoid . I'm so glad to have learned it from you here.

[Paul]

Paul, that's a wonderful factoid . I'm so glad to have learned it from you here.

Oh I know lots of useless stuff. I know nothing whatsoever that is useful. But I can tell you plenty of things that you neither need nor want to know.

Get me drunk and I am a real bore.

[Charlie B53]

I don't know if true, but......

Recently read that Kool-Aid is not good for the Hummingbirds, something about the red dye in it.  That we should be using simple sugar water, no color necessary.

Paul, one reason I no longer drink.  No one wants to be around me.

Maybe I'm no fun.

[Marilee]

(I can't drink, either! I skip tipsy, skip drunk and go straight to hung over.)

How interesting, Charlie: I have a very old container of 'Gardensong Hummingbird Food' in the pantry and it has 'FDC Red #40' in the list of ingredients, but I stopped feeding them when we moved here to Albuquerque because the flowers are more reliable than I am. I'm thinking it's about time I toss this canister...

[PrimeTimer]

Flying Tortillas

Back during the days when we still had a house I use to feed birds in the backyard. Sometimes all I had were soft flour tortillas. I'd tear them into small pieces and the birds loved it. For the heck of it, I'd throw a whole one out onto the grass. Was wondering if they'd gather around as if at a diner counter and eat. Well, the little sparrows did one better; they would literally put in a group effort and haul it off together. No joke, we had "flying tortillas" going through our backyard. Never underestimate animals.

[Marilee]

  PrimeTimer! I visualize the little birdies all hanging on, fire-fighter style, to the tortilla as they fade into the sunset! Thank-you for that visual

[Paul]

Well, the little sparrows did one better; they would literally put in a group effort and haul it off together.

Wish I had seen that. When I was a kid they were the most common bird in England, you would see them hopping between pigeons stealing the food before the pigeons could get it. I loved the sparrows.  Now they are one of the rarest birds in Britain No one knows what happened but they are nearly extinct over here. You have to really look for them, and even then you are unlikely to see them more than a couple of times a year. I really miss the sparrows.

[Riki]

Paul, that's a wonderful factoid . I'm so glad to have learned it from you here.

Oh I know lots of useless stuff. I know nothing whatsoever that is useful. But I can tell you plenty of things that you neither need nor want to know.

Get me drunk and I am a real bore.

I bet you are a great trivia partner.  I also have a head full of useless knowledge.  I've been trying out for Jeopardy for about 10 years now, but I've never gotten a call.  I figure something good needs to come of all the crap up there