1:26 p.m. - 2008-08-03
Can you hear the humming?
Sunday, August 03, 2008
So, RH (retired husband) and I have been spending a lot of time sitting on our front porch just watching...... Not that there is a whole lot of activity in our neighborhood. We live about a block from a busy street that is a direct link to several towns in our area.
Although there is a lot of traffic on that street, we don't really hear all that much. Sure, there are sirens from time to time from a fire truck or a police car or an ambulance, but really, it isn't often that we have a lot of traffic on our street. Probably, because there is a dead end a few blocks past us. And, if you don't know where to turn in the residential community, you could get caught in a maze of streets that don't go very far. But we like it.
There are some children living in our neighborhood. They don't seem to play outside very often. There is also an elementary school about 2 blocks from us. The most activity we see around here is when school is in session. The children are walking to and from school. A crossing guard stands right by our driveway where the children gather to cross the street. Leaving the house between 8:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. can be difficult.
So back to the porch sitting.....we watch the little bit of traffic that ventures down our street, we watch the neighbors coming home and leaving, we watch some of them walk their dogs in the evening or on the weekend, we talk about the weather and the lawn and the flowers. And lately, we have been talking about......
BIRDS!!!!!!
We had a very large wild cherry tree cut down last week. We were worried about any birds that might have nested in the tree but we didn't notice any particular bird activity as the tree was coming down in pieces. We didn't see any nests in the tree branches as they were cut down either. We did notice since the tree has been cut down that the birds seem to still be flying between our neighbor's trees to our South and the neighbor's trees across the street from us and landing in our remaining trees in the front yard.
Yesterday, RH had rigged up a new sprinkler soaker system for the side of our house. One of our neighbors doesn't water his lawn very often....OK...he NEVER waters his lawn. RH noticed our little side yard wasn't staying green so he decided to rig up a soaker hose and a couple of sprinklers to give our yard and plants some water. After he had adjusted the sprinkler that hits the driveway; it made a little puddle and there was a fine mist near the puddle too. It wasn't long after, that the birds starting flying in for a drink and a little bath. We had 2 cardinals....male and female,
assorted robins, and sparrows,
2 yellow finches
......
AND............DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!!!
A RED HEADED WOODPECKER....
Yes, we did!
Here's the description.....
"Nine to ten inches long. Crimson-red head, neck and upper breast. White lower breast and under side. Black back, upper wings, and tail. Broad white band on lower wings. Colors distinctly separate and contrasting.
Inhabits forests, groves, and small stands, sometimes solitary trees in the open prairies and farms throughout most of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains and southern Canada.
And as if that wasn't exciting enough....remember...all these birds came around within a 10 minute time frame.
We decided to buy a hummingbird feeder yesterday afternoon. I have seen feeders at relative's homes in the country and loved to watch the hummingbirds come around to drink the nectar. I wondered if we could attract any hummingbirds at our home....Remember, we live in a very busy traffic area, yet our residence is fairly quiet. It was farm land years ago and still has a lot of very old trees in the area.
So, we bought a little feeder, bought the nectar substance and filled up the feeder with 20 ounces of the sugary water. We sat and watched the feeder for about 1-1/2 hours. We decided it wasn't going to work and went into the house. RH took a shower and then sat on the porch to cool off. It was about 7:00 P.M.
He suddenly walked into the living room and said.... "You are not going to believe this....a hummingbird just came and drank from all four of the feeder flowers, then it checked out our gladiolas and flew away."
Later, he was sitting on the couch and said "There's a hummingbird at the feeder again." I walked to the front door and saw it.
This morning we were on the porch again but didn't see any activity. However, my husband just came into the room to tell me he saw a hummingbird at the feeder again.
I THINK WE MIGHT HAVE A NEW HOBBY........ It is time to start checking on what flowers and plants hummingbirds are attracted to so we can plant some and get more hummingbirds
