The Hummers Are Coming!

Lisa called to tell me it's time to hang up the hummingbird feeders. She's right. I checked the Migration Map, and they've been sighted in NJ, NY, PA, and even farther north.
I made up some nectar this morning and got a couple of feeders out there. Come on, guys! It's time! I'm anxious to see you back again! The feeders are here waiting for you. Not a whole lot of flowers ready for you yet, but the feeders are waiting. And the blossoms will be following soon.



I tried to get my taxes done this morning too. Gave up. It's just too hard when you have to use a magnifying glass for every line. I made an appointment with the Office of Aging. Nothing like cutting it down to the last minute, is there?

Today the temperature is supposed to go waaaay up! Before Thursday, that is, when it's supposed to come way back down again, with rain. Oh well. We'll enjoy it while it's here. All the more reason to hang the feeders. If it's going to get cold again, the hummers will need their nectar.

And have you seen how BIG the eaglets are now!

The hawk can probably be seen best in the afternoon, when the sun gets around to that side of the building.

It's For the Birds

So far, the hummers' nest I'm watching shows me the two eggs, and mama and papa hummer flitting back and forth busily, but no other action





The same was true of the robins' nest, until I went to look at it yesterday, and was informed that all three eggs hatched on Wednesday. I had seen the mama sit on the edge of the nest and bend down to them as if she was listening, but had seen nothing beyond that.

I can't get a clear picture of the babies yet. I only managed this. Totally unsatisfactory so far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping for much better soon, but the camera on them isn't really in clear focus much of the time.






The Hornby Island eagles seem to be doing fine. It took so long for the second egg to hatch, that chick is much smaller than the first. But it seems to be doing very well. The bigger one does try to push it out of the way at feeding time, but mama sees to it that it gets its share. They are still in the cute, fluffy stage.


I took one picture that I think is funny. It was an extremely windy day, and mama was hunched up with the wind ruffling her feathers. The chicks were safely tucked under her, but one of them decided to poke out its little head.



Then there is the nest in Sidney. Those three chicks are much older, and are now gray in color. They are more like awkward teenagers. The adults allow them to fend for themselves most of the time, but still sometimes feed them. Yesterday mama was screeching loudly - I believe for her mate to come to the nest. She repeated this for quite a while.

Eventually I guess she got tired of waiting, and just took off. I knew papa wasn't far off. I could hear him. So could the babies. They all just stood, looking up, waiting for him.

And he did arrive. But he didn't seem to be the least bit interested in his offspring. I got the impression that the three little ones were still hoping mama would return.



That leaves the red tailed hawks. They are also doing well. The three chicks seem to be thriving. Every time I go to their site, the chicks are alone. They make me a little nervous because there is often one wandering so very close to the edge of the nest. Since it is constructed on a building ledge, high above city traffic, I wouldn't want to see one try to take off too soon, especially without an adult bird around, but so far, so good. I finally did get a picture today as mama brought a pigeon back to them for dinner and they all crowded around.


You can see the live cams of the hawks and eagles by clicking on the pictures at the top of my sidebar. I found the live cams of the hummers and robins by looking along the right side of the hawks' cam. Here's where to look for the hummer.

The Hummers Are Coming!

Yes! Hummingbirds are on their way! There have been sightings in New Jersey, and even as far as New England. We're told to hang out the feeders now, because not too many flowers are in bloom, and they will need the nectar. I hung mine this morning. It's a new one that my son and his wife gave me for Christmas. I'll hang the other two later on, when I know they are really here. Don't forget to change the nectar every few days.


I have resolved my Blogger problems, for now, thank heaven. No doubt others will appear shortly. They seem to come with frequency.


Are you familiar with Deborah's blog? You should be - it's wonderful. Yesterday she gave us a link to a live cam on an eagle's nest. Actually, it gives you several nests to watch in case one is just sitting doing nothing, so you can go on to others to watch them doing some "housekeeping", so click on "Other Cameras".

So we may be able, eventually, to watch some eagle eggs hatching. In the past I have watched eagle cams, but had a lot of difficulty. Sometimes the video would black out. This one seems to be trouble-free, so far. Remember, east coast people, these nests are in Canada and out west. A three hour time difference.


Here's another one. My cousin sent me a link to a live cam. A pair of red-tailed hawks have built a nest on a building ledge at the Franklin Institute. The employees there reinforced it with a board underneath, and set up cameras.


I guess this spring we will be able to eavesdrop on lots of bird families.
By the way - if you aren't aware of it - eagles can make one helluva noise when they want to, so don't tune in if the baby is sleeping.


The photo of the red-tailed hawk courtesy of 10,000 birds.

Lazy Holiday Stuff

Can it really be September 1st? Labor Day! Yea! To us in Cape May County, that means just one thing. They are going home! Yes, I know, "They" are a large part of our economic life. But to most locals, it is a happy day when at least all of them who have children returning to school, are leaving. The beaches are ours again!

I see that my counter for US Deaths in Iraq has gone missing again. Widgets are funny things. No doubt it will be back soon, if it isn't already when you read this. And sometimes when the site is under maintenance, it gives the wrong total. I now have another widget - a Schmap Widget. Found it Sunday, and just thought I'd try it out for fun. It, too, comes and goes. Guess it's just the nature of widgets.

I found some hummingbird facts, new to me. The hummers have been very busy at my feeder lately. According to the people at Hilton Pond Center for Natural History, down in South Carolina, the rubythroats that we see here fly down to central Mexico or Central America for the winter. I always thought they went farther than that. They say that recently some only go to south Florida or east Texas, which could be a result of global warming. I learned that they don't suck up the nectar we give them. They lap it like a cat or dog with their little forked tongues. And I learned that this time of year, you can't really tell the males from the females like you can in the spring, because the young males look like the females until they mature. What I already knew was that when we make nectar for the feeders, we shouldn't put red coloring into it, and that the proper ratio for the nectar is one part sugar to four parts water. Oh yes - and they say you can leave the feeders up as long as you like, because you might attract a few strays right into October. They don't really depend on our feeders though, because they eat lots of insects as well.

The Democratic Convention is over. I must say, I was pretty impressed. I thought there was a minimum of nonsense (Well, everything is relative.), and some of the speeches were pretty great: Kucinich, Gore, and Obama himself. A few that the media made much of didn't impress me much. Mr. McCain surprised us all with his choice, didn't he? I'm not sure if she will be good or bad - for him or for his opponent. Guess that remains to be seen.

140 more days.

I'm ready for cooler weather now. Actually, I was ready for it a long time ago, but now I'm really looking forward to it. I can't take the heat any more. It lays me low. Can't go anywhere much nor accomplish anything it seems. Please give me some nice, crisp, cool air.

Ok. Enough of this. Are you ready for a silly chicken joke?


























Well, I scheduled it for 9/1 early morning - honest. But it keeps publishing on 8/31. Oh well......
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OK. Another mystery. - I'm adding this about a half hour after I typed the above.

Since my counter is missing, I went to the iCasualties site where I've been getting my info for months now. Instead, I got a big red warning saying that it was an "Attack Site" (although they have no record of any kind of problem with it). Then I went to the site I got the counter from, and got an entirely different page than I had ever seen before, but no casualty information.

I contacted my son-in-law, who knows all about the workings of computers. He had a reasonable probable answer. Don't think I'm going to discuss it here at present, but the information will probably be back in a day or two. We'll see.