Labor Day With the Hummers

Just back from a weekend in Napa, Haley next door did a nice job keeping feeders up - lots of hummers  buzzing around to greet the holiday morning. A bit unusual, weatherwise, it is more common to have an east wind and be hot than to get rain on Labor Day. But that is just what we got, not a lot, but 3 separate waves have gone by.

Here are a few photos of the hummers having labor Day breakfast in the rain! (clicking a photo brings up a large view)

 Not raining hard at this point, more like drizzle.

 

 Hard to see the 2 here. Deer grass, evening primrose, aloe, monkeyflower, desert willow in scene.

 Favorite feeder type on left, oriole feeder on right. Have only seen one hooded oriole today, most are back wintering in Az or Mex.

 Another oriole feeder, 2 hummers are hard to see. These feeders are a last resort usually, bees get in the way.

 A little more action here.

How many feeders do you count?  There are 8 more not shown that are up, 3 or 4 broken ones awaiting the recycle can.

First of September

Summer has arrived over the last couple weeks, 80s to mid 90s are the norm now and by the middle of next week some reports expect high 90s.

The hummers are in high form, 2-3 gallons a day and much activity. Seeing more Allen's, not sure if any Rufus are in town. Morning and evening are quite a show!

I looked back to last year's blogs and see that the Hooded Orioles were still here (though in low numbers) on Sept 11 - but by the 16th they were gone for the year. I have seen 3 females this morning, we shall see how long before they leave. As last year, the females are the last to go.

We will be gone for 4 days and are trying out having someone keep up the feeders while we are away. Hopefully this works out, otherwise the feeders will all be empty tomorrow and maybe all the bids will move on! Maybe I need to work on 1 or 2 gallon feeders instead of using these tiny 16-48 ounce feeders!