Last year's freezes combined with the fallen tree has left my yard with a number of damaged flower beds. Some are not
growing back quick enough and others have been overtaken by weeds. While tending to these beds I caught the bug to "fix" other
parts of the yard that have gotten away from the original plan. Hopefully, these won't result in too drastic of
a change to the landscape and affect the birdlife in a negative way.
Since I'm making so many changes to the landscaping, I've decided to make a few changes to the feeders as well. I went
to Rich's Backyard Birds in Fishhawk and picked out a few new feeders. I've never been able to feed sunflower seeds in a tube
feeder due to guaranteed squirrel damage and/or excessive waste of seed so I decided to pick up a Brome Squirrel
Buster Plus in hopes of finally offering higher quality seed in a tube. I also picked up a larger fly-through feeder
with better drainage.
I'm trying a few new hummingbird feeders as well. I picked up a couple of Aspect Humzingers from Rich's. I get so many
satisfied reports from people who use these that I figured I should use a couple of them. I used to have a
couple of them that I'd gotten at the Wild Birds Unlimited in Carrolwood 10+ years ago but I hadn't seen them offered anywhere
nearby since moving away from there. They are very easy maintenance and hopefully may reduce some of the problems I've had
with bees over the past few years.
Speaking of bees, I'm beta testing a replacement flower for a number of PerkyPet feeders so I need a couple of different PerkyPet
feeders to test the flowers on. The flower is supposed to prevent dripping and consequently reduce the issues with bees.
I found a PP-201 at Home Depot today. I've also got a feeder that's a large apple but it's really too large. I'd like to find
the one that's a small strawberry. I used to have one of those that was made by Artline that was the preferred feeder
for a Black-chinned Hummingbird.
I've yet to see any sign of the female Rufous who's spent the past 7 winters in my yard. There's still time for her to
arrive but I've stoppped running out the backyard as soon as I get home expecting to find her. She would be turning at least
8 years old this year if she's still alive. That's old for a hummingbird. The oldest Rufous on record was 11 years old. A
9 year old Black-chinned Hummingbird was caught in Montana this summer. That bird was originally banxed in Arizona in 2000.
I'm currently seeing at least three young male Ruby-throateds on most days. I don't think I've seen more than that and
on some days, I only see or hear one or two.
I feel like Linus in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night. I've been spending every possible moment searching
the backyard for the returning female Rufous over the past few days. Sitting/standing motionless, dripping sweat down
my face, listening for hummingbird chases. I appear to have two young male Ruby-throateds regularly visiting my yard but no
Rufous yet.
She arrived August 13th and the 15th the past two years respectively and has arrived as early as the 9th and as late
as the 27th over the years. I'll be looking for her again tomorrow.
