I went around the yard yesterday afternoon filling all the feeders and topping off the bird baths. Shortly after returning inside I caught a quick glimpse of a hummer at the feeder. There seemed to be a flash of color so I thought that it may have been a male this time. I kept watching and soon a female showed up to feed. I assumed that it was a Rufous but can't be sure as they look a lot like an Anna's. I was using the binoculars to view some of our other feeders when I swung them back over to the Dr. JBs Hummingbird Feeder. All of a sudden there was a huge flash of color! I quickly changed the focus and was treated to a very close view of a male Rufous Hummingbird (RUHU). It was quite beautiful and came to the feeder several times in the late afternoon.
This morning I was again looking over the backyard while waiting for the coffee to brew. I caught a very quick glimpse of a hummer doing a fly-by. I then noticed a bird come in over the fence and land under our big platform feeder. I got a very quick idea of it's size and shape so I had an idea of who had just flown in for a visit. I reached behind me for the binos to confirm my snap identification. Sure enough, the Mourning Doves (MODO) had come back in for another easy meal. Unfortunately, our corgi soon saw them and thought they looked like they needed to be herded. They flew off instead of submitting to the indignity of being bossed around by a dog with 4" legs.
Hopefully these most recent sightings indicate that the RUHU and MODO have identified our yard as a safe and reliable place to feed and they will come back often. Do you have any interesting and/or fun sightings to report? Please feel free to add them as a comment or you can email me and I will post your sightings to the blog.
