Friday, August 16, 2013

Our charm of Humminbirds

Did you know that a group of hummingbirds is called a charm?  I did not either.  But that is what we have.
Over the last several weeks we have noticed an increase in the number of hummingbirds that have been feeding at our two feeders on our back deck.  We were used to seeing about 4 or 5 birds at a time and usually they would be chasing each other away from the feeders and around the trees in our backyard.
Like I said we have had an increase to those before seen numbers.  We now estimate that we have about a dozen hummingbirds coming around.  This has caused the need for us to increase the number of times we are required to refill each feeder as well.  We are now filling the small green feeder 3x each week and the large brown one once a week and they still run dry.

These birds sure like our home-made sugar water!   

About two weeks ago while my best-friend M was visiting I looked out the window and for the first time saw four birds all sitting and drinking from the feeder at the same time.  Previously the most that could share and eat at the same time was two. I was amazed.
Since then every evening at just about sundown they all come in to feed.  About 12 of them!  It is so fun, and a little scary to watch them buzz around swooping and diving at high speed.  Another bit of trivia for you, Hummingbirds can fly at up to 35 mph!  Who knew!
Nathan and I often go out and sit on our swing while Jasper wanders through the backyard exploring each grass blade and weed that he can find.  We sit and talk about the day and watch the sun go down and the hummingbirds fly.  It is one of my favorite ways to end the day.

If the birds continue to increase at this rate I think that we will need to invest in another feeder or two next year.

Nathan took all of the photos on the right last Sunday night.

I took this video tonight to prove that we do actually have about a dozen birds.  Right about the 1 minute mark they really start crowding the feeder.  Good luck trying to get an accurate count, these birds are speedy.


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