FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Mantis tries for hummer?

["Anna Varney" <arvarney@xxxxxxx>]

As of Monday I still have at least one Ruby-throated visiting feeders.   

A few days ago, while standing in the back yard close to the hummer feeder I 
saw that the hummer was getting a bit agitated at something on the tree that 
the feeder is attached to.  But what?  Looking closer I saw a Preying Mantis 
gripping the tree truck within inches of the feeder... and the hummingbird.  
O.k., so I stepped in and relocated the mantis to a tomato plant.  The hummer 
went on feeding like nothing happened.  Things might have turned out different. 
 While staying at Nancy Moore's B&B during Labor Day weekend this year, we saw 
what a Preying Mantis can do!  Pull in a Hummingbird Moth!  Nancy intervened on 
behalf of the moth that evening (=  First time I had ever seen anything like it.

Sunday birds.  Not much happening.  Red-bellied Woodpeckers quite VOCAL 
today-all day long.  Had a thrush.  Wasn't a Veery, Wood nor Hermit Thrush.  I 
got a good look at the tail.  It was the same gray-brown color as the wings and 
back and the spotting on the breast couldn't have been of a Wood Thrush.  The 
lighting was good at times then poor as the bird moved from sunlight to shade 
on the forest floor.  I'm leaning toward a Swainson's Thrush; the eye ring was 
strong and the flanks were grayish.

Second hand observation of a lizard (the husband saw it):  kinda  light 
puple-ish with a brown tail (?)  By the time I was told about it it was gone.  
  

Anna Varney
Summertown, TN       

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