[TN-Bird] Pale hummer
- From: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 09:05:18 EDT
Good morning,
Sorry to be so late with this post, but I've been busier than a crazy coondog
chasing its tail! I'll try to get this squeezed out before I have to leave
for another meeting.
On Monday afternoon, while I was in the kitchen, a very pale hummer came to
my feeder. It was very white with an extremely light
sort-of-a-slightly-dirty-dishwater-colored back, AND a light pink throat where
it's "ruby" would
normally be. "He" was here four times while I was busy cooking, eating and
cleaning
up--at 1:55 PM, 2:15 PM, 3:05 PM (while I was on the deck putting out food)
and 4:20 PM. During his appearance while I was on the deck, he flew right up
in front of my face and hovered for a second--you know how they'll fly over and
look you square in the face--then zipped away. At that point, I KNEW that
the pale pink throat was NOT a reflection from the red on my hummingbird feeder
as sometimes happens in the "right" light. This bird's throat was ACTUALLY
pink when he was face-on to me. I was of the thinking that these "off-color"
birds don't often reach maturity, but this bird must be a mature male ruby
throat or that pink would not cover the entire area of the male ruby-throat's
"ruby". At any rate, after I last saw him, I had to rush to a meeting and
could
not take time to write then simply didn't have the time in my busy day
yesterday.
Yesterday, while preparing my lunch, I had a female hummingbird hover over
and feed from a fresh orange half that I had just impaled on a nail on my deck
rail. She fed on that for several seconds, then flew up to finish off her
orange juice snack with a sugar water dessert. They really do seem to love the
fresh fruit on occasion. I have seen them go for apple and banana as well as
suck up a little grape jelly once in a while. I love to watch them hover above
my althea bush which seems to attract favorite insects which they dart around
and fetch fairly often.
This morning, I had five ruby-throated "feemies" and "immies" perched
PEACEFULLY for a few minutes while I ate breakfast. When I got up to was the
dishes,
the playing and food fights began with hummers everywhere. I think some more
were in the trees and came down to join in the play and fray!
As I've never seen a banded hummer here, am I to assume that I am not on the
same longitude (whatever) as any of the hummingbird banding stations anywhere?
I cannot recall ever having had a banded bird of any kind here in Charlotte
Park. They say the birds usually follow the same route back and forth each
year, and it would be interesting to know just where MY visitors are coming
from.
Cheers, Prayers & Happy Birding,
Dee Thompson
Nashville, TN (Charlotte Park/West Nashville/near old Cleeces' Ferry
Landing on Cumberland River)
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
=========================================================
Other related posts:
