HUMMINGBIRD PHOTOS

We were delighted to see a hummingbird going back and forth to this feeder. 

Gregg had the camera with the longer lens and was not as close as he would have liked, but close enough to get these quick shots. I was super happy that he did and so was he.

This is an adult male Ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), easily recognizable by its brilliant red throat patch, also known as a gorget.

They flap their wings roughly 53 times per second during regular flight. 

They are incredibly lightweight, weighing only 3 grams - roughly the same as a penny. 

They can fly forward, backward, upside down and hover in place by moving their wings in a figure-eight pattern.

They fly up to 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico to winter in Central America. 

A Ruby-throat's heart beats over 1,200 times per minute when active.

To survive cold nights without starving, they can enter a deep hibernation-like sleep state called torpor, drastically slowing their heart rate and metabolism.

Their legs are so underdeveloped that they cannot walk or hop; they can only shuffle sideways along a perch.

They have among the fewest feathers of any bird, averaging only about 940 feathers total.

Females build tiny nests out of plant down and lichen, bound together using stretchy spider silk so the nest can expand as the chicks grow.

Males are entirely solitary, they do not help build nests or raise the chicks, and they aggressively defend food sources from other birds.

I have more to share from Walney soon. 

Have a great day 

and thanks for stopping by.

RANDOM PHOTO - A HUMMINGBIRD ON A CANNA LILY

Tiny but mighty, a phrase which I often hear used when describing the hummingbird. They are the only birds that can fly backwards and completely upside down. Their wings rotate in a figure-eight pattern, operating like helicopter rotors to allow stationary hovering. They can beat its wings 50 to 80 times per second. They glide at 30 miles per hour and reach 60 miles per hour during mating dives. They are among the most evolutionarily unique creatures in the animal kingdom. They are native exclusively to the Western Hemisphere, with over 300 distinct species distributed across North and South America. 

 I couldn't get a definite ID on this hummingbird. Two possible suggestions are an Anna's hummingbird or that of a Black-chinned hummingbird. If anyone can verify with certainty, please let me know. It is sipping the nectar from an African arrow/Indian root/Purple arrowroot/Edible canna or Canna lily. All names may apply. Both bird and flower were seen while walking around the San Diego Zoo in California. Another old one from 2013.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day.

I THINK I AM….

Just a little humor for you today. I found it online and had to share. 

“I think I’m overfeeding my hummingbirds.”

COME FORTH INTO…

 

“Come forth into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher.”

~William Wordsworth~

 

I found the hummingbird while on a trip to San Diego in 2011, drinking nectar from a Canna Lily. I was admiring all the flowers at the time. 

ODDS AND BODS 10/16/24

I am starting off with a poem today, and you know how much I love my poems. Often they are oldies but goodies, and sometimes ones I have shared before.

 How about this then? Could you live here? Take a short holiday? It’s really cute!  I would probably want a small garden though.

May I a small house and

large garden have, and

a few friends and many 

books, both true, both wise,

and both delightful too.

~Abraham Cowley(1618-1667)~

I thought these pumpkins were beautiful.

One more!

As we are coming up to Halloween at the end of this month, the witches are getting ready to fly.  They are…

A thought for anyone who has ...

friends or relatives in a retirement home. You may have done this already, but I thought what a sweet idea.

Now for some food pictures. I am in awe of these cake decorating designers.

Back to reality!

I grew up with fluffy dumplings and those are what I prefer to make, but these sound good… 

and these.

Talking about this as I was the other day, here is a recipe. 

One last recipe.

And now fun with food. 

Onto other things. 

I found this photo on Pinterest, along with a link to the lantern below. How pretty is this picture? Those nests are amazingly tiny. The lanterns are on Amazon and not that I am touting the company, but I just love this lantern. The advertisement says Hummingbird Solar Lantern - Outdoor - Waterproof, etc., etc. Will I buy it? If it was sold locally in the bird shop I used to go to, probably. I enjoyed visiting this family-owned shop, used to go there quite a lot back in the day. Sadly they closed. 

This is interesting. Don't forget to enlarge for better reading or seeing any of my pictures in greater detail.

I once had a friend who was learning English and she told me it was very hard. Years ago I took a class with six months of Mandarin Chinese and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was as my friend said of English, very hard. We had to leave the area before the course was over. I never did get back to it, much to my chagrin. Looking after a baby/toddler obviously took precedence and I gave him all my time. Being a navy wife also had its responsibilities and I wouldn't have either any other way. Learning a language is great mental gymnastics for anyone. Gregg is trying his hand at French. He is French on his Mother's side. I always liked the idea of learning Spanish but I can't roll my "r's". I try and pick up a few words here and there, and find it fun to learn, but my memory isn't very good. Still, I even enjoy my snail's pace and am hoping something will sink in.

Wise words!

Did you know…

Very naughty of me but this is a gotcha moment! The above story is false, darn it! A good tale though. Just goes to show however, that we can't believe everything we read. Check, check and fact check again! We need lots of patience to wade through all those pork pies! And here we go again, off on another tangent.

What do I mean by 'pork pies'? Well, funny you should ask. Yes, I know you didn't but...

Apart from the literal meaning of actual pies filled with pork, 'pork pies' is a Cockney rhyming slang for 'lies'. With rhyming slang the actual portion that rhymes is often dropped in order to further confuse the outsider, so it becomes 'porkies'. So, someone 'telling porkies' is a liar, liar, pants on fire sort of a person.  If you want to know about Cockney rhyming slang, you can go here. My Dad always told me, and this was as far back as I can remember, that a Cockney was born within the sound of Bow Bells, which you can read about here. 

Oh my goodness, you never know where these posts are going. I definitely miss my walks around the gardens and yet I am having fun with all these things that I find.

Wise words seen outside a local church.

“Tweet others as you 

would like to be tweeted.”

Now for more poetry.

Love to read my poems. An oldie but goodie. It’s a bit sad when I deep think it. I welcome all opinions on any of these poems I share, or anything else for that matter.

Profound!

Hmmm…who could this be? 

He agrees!

Have a great day everyone 

and thanks for once again sticking through to the end of this epilog. Certainly no worries if you didn't. I am falling asleep too.

ODE TO A HUMMINGBIRD

From scarlet to powdered gold,To blazing yellow, to the rare ashen emerald,To the orange and black velvet of your shimmering corselet,Out to the tip like an amber thorn begins you,Small, superlative being, you are a miracle,

And you blaze.

"Ode to a Hummingbird"

by

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

This is a post I transferred from my old blog. I like to browse through it every now and again, and it makes me very happy finding ones that I haven't thought about in a long time. I may have shared at least one of these photos before, but I don't think the poem has been on here.

A little background on these photos, I tagged along on a business trip to San Diego with Gregg several years before he retired. When he was at work I drove around and was very happy to be back where we had lived for several years.  

On this particular day, and because I now had the GPS feature on my phone, it gave me a little push to venture further afield, and I set off for Encinitas.  This is where the San Diego Botanical Garden is located. You can see a map at its website here. I found it without any difficulty and set out to explore as soon as the car was parked. I walked every inch of the place, and eventually found myself in the children's garden.  

I picked a very quiet day - mid-week - and I practically had it all to myself. It was hot but I had bought a small picnic, and my flask full of water was thankfully still icy cold. I sat down in the shade on a bench among the trees that I can now identify as Pineapple Guava.  

Almost immediately I noticed a slight movement out of the corner of my eye.  Sitting to my right on a branch a little higher than my head, was this sweet little hummingbird. I had never seen one with my own eyes, so you can imagine how thrilled I was. She rested long enough for me to take several photos, and to observe her for a good while after I had finished snapping away. I was enchanted! I saw a lot of lovely sights that day, flowers as well as birds, but she literally made my day.  This is a female Anna's Hummingbird, which apparently are very common in California and Arizona.