It's A Hummer! A Bumble Bee? No! A SPHINX MOTH!: Hummers Galore!

» Naomi_Mathews - Hummers Galore!

I can't believe how many hummingbirds we've seen this afternoon and evening! They have been visiting the feeder that's hung at the arbor, then whizzing up into the white birch tree that's at the south end of our back yard. I'm thinking there must surely have been a nest in this tree, as one of the hummers is larger than two of the others!!

This evening when we were eating dinner on the back deck, the larger hummer perched for the longest time way up on a high branch of the birch tree. I dashed in and got the binoculars to get a better look at "her." She was actually sitting there "preening" and using her long needle-like beak to smooth down her feathers. She has some green feathers, and the rest are grayish colored.

AND -- we also had our FIRST Monarch sighting today! It was on the buddleia blossoms along with some little sulphurs and cabbage whites, a small orange fritillary, and later what looked like another Monarch, but much smaller. Not sure what that one was. Oh, and a Mourning Cloak came too! We were thrilled!

To top it all off, we had mourning doves on the telephone wires behind our house, a pair of California Quail visiting, and the usual wrens and sparrows. All were singing and chirping their favorite songs -- we thought they were just entertaining us for dinner! And the truly did!!

-- posted by Naomi_Mathews