Weather following the Hummer Bird Celebration had provided the push to clear
out most of the migrant Ruby-throats from the Victoria area. It was strange
walking through the yard and only finding a couple of Buff-bellies, Rufous, and
Ruby-throats during the past week.
Thus, when Dora Ann mentioned seeing many hummers working flowers I had to
check it out, and walked outside. None were on feeders giving the impression
these new migrants did not recognize my feeders as a food source.
Very challenging counting hummers that are not perched on feeders. I ended up
tallying at least 20.
Then the fun started. Heavy overcast, scattered showers and somewhat cool (mid
70's) conditions apparently was not providing much lift for raptors. A group
of Broad-winged Hawks started landing in the trees of my subdivision. This
made it hard to focus on hummers when every few seconds a hawk was passing just
over the tree tops. Watched them circling the liveoaks with the occasional
individual landing for about 15 minutes then a break in the clouds appeared and
raptors started leaving.
Back to hummers. Birds still working the abundant Turk's-cap in the yard.
After 30-minutes a few found the feeders and a gradual shift of birds went from
all working flowers to most fighting over the 10 feeders in the yard.
Still looking for raptors and enjoying the hummers, I spotted a large flock of
soaring birds from the northeast heading towards me. Time for camera. Dora
Ann went for the camera and I decided for a better view because tall trees in
my yard make it challenging to follow flying birds. Grabbed the ladder and
went on the roof. I was able to watch the flock of about 70 Wood Storks for
about 10 minutes from this vantage point.
It has been a long time since I have birded from the roof. It was nice since
it was not a hot day. Gave me better views of the soaring migrants, and it
also provided me a much better perspective of what the hummers were doing.
Most of our observations of hummingbirds are from the ground and we see them
working feeders/flowers at that level. We hear them in the tree tops but have
difficulties counting/identifying. Yesterday afternoon over half of the
hummers I could ID spent most of their time in the canopy of the trees
seemingly waiting their turn to work feeders and or flowers or feeding on
insects at canopy height. As typical with hummers, they had a preference for
one feeder out of the 10 available for various reasons (dominance by
individuals, fear of predation, higher concentration of sugar, etc.). The
favorite feeder had 6-8 on it constantly. As soon as birds vacated it others
would take its place. The other feeders had one or two in attendance.
Spent about 1/2 hour enjoying the view of hummers from the roof and spotting an
occasional raptor cruising by high above the ground as showers moved out of the
area.
Spent the rest of the afternoon spot checking on raptors movement. Sadly only
had that one flock of Broad-wings land in the subdivision for a few minutes.
Enjoying retirement and having fun at area festivals like Hummer-Bird and
Celebration of Flight. Looking forward to the TOS Weekender and Christmas Bird
Counts.
Brent Ortego
Near Victoria, TX
