I did get an ant trap and figured I'd put it out when I hung the bird feeder in the spring. Little did I know that I would be using it a bit more quickly than that.
The day before my family came down (so the 21st of December), I was sitting backwards on the chair (that is, the chair faces into the living room, but it has the only windows in the room right behind it), and I noticed a hummingbird looking for blooms by the window. I quickly put water and sugar in the feeder and re-hung it outside. Sure enough, the bird easily found the feeder. Since then, I've been having a bird show up every day. This one isn't nearly as skittish as the other hummingbirds and has no problem with using the feeder while I'm doing yard work right next to it.
Thus, while this picture doesn't really look like I'm any closer than any of the previous photos I've taken (you can see them here and here), I'm using a 70mm lens instead of the 300. Which basically means that I was like 5' away from the bird instead of 12'.
Based on the apparent affiliation with the Texas Longhorns, I'm going to guess that this bird is a Rufous. Though it could be an Allen's Hummingbird.
7 comments:
That's too cool. Thanks for looking out for the wildlife. I'm guessing he has a good reason for not leaving town, or maybe he got the memo on global warming :)
How neat. I currently have 2 hummers at my feeder ( I left mine out because I have a woodpecker that is a sugar addict). They showed up around Dec the 11th and have stayed. I think they are Rufous females. I wonder if this means we will have a mild winter in Texas?
That's great! I'm going to go put my feeders back out just in case. I had let the ant traps go dry and the feeders are mess of dead ants.
Hmmm, maybe I ought to put my feeder back out! Happy New Year!
Katina, I leave my feeder up all year now. I see at least one hummingbird nearly every day. I wish mine weren't so camera-shy! The Travis Audubon Society says Black-Chinned and Rufous may overwinter in Central Texas.
A Rufous female has shown up in my yard this week, the first time to my knowledge that I have ever had a hummingbird here in January. (I'm just northwest of Houston.) There seems to be an explosion of over-wintering hummingbirds in the Houston area this winter. I've blogged about my hummer here:
http://backyardbirdinginsoutheasttexas.blogspot.com/2012/01/over-wintering-hummingbirds.html
and here:
http://backyardbirdinginsoutheasttexas.blogspot.com/2012/01/this-week-in-birds-4-with-hummingbird.html
great picture. Gald to see not all hummers are shy :)
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