return of the hummies

I spotted one yesterday so they haven't all left here yet.

It's so funny how one day, we have crowds and the next our yard is deserted. That's okay though. I saw my little barn wren checking out the digs for winter nesting. I've put a folded towel in my helmet, so she shouldn't be too interested in that. I should put up some boxes on the barn walls since I think she'd like that.

Let's hope the wren doesn't think that towel is extra padding so her nest is nice and cushy underneath....

The entire helmet is stuffed full of towel. There's no space. She's started building in a handily little corner of the feed room. She's welcome there.

Good....I hope she likes that corner so well she won't pick your helmet again even if it's empty.

Will keep my eye open for hummies tonight.....I hope they haven't all left already but I have a gut feeling they might have because of the earlier and colder than usual weather.

Ours are gone. We've taken down one feeder. The other is about 1/4 full with the last of the syrup. The rest, my husband will use in tea. (I know it's a crime against Southern living, but I HATE sweet tea.)

You're right it is but I can't stand it either.

Our hummies are gone. Mom and I are leaving the feeder up until this weekend. The honeybees are drinking quite a bit from the feeder trying to fatten up for winter, so we're taking pity on them not having many flowers to get a drink from after our recent 37° cold snap.

Our feeders are coming in this weekend too. No sign of birds, and the bees are happy with the surprise blooming of honeysuckle all over the place. I also have a couple blooms left on my Hawaiian ginger plants. Those smell so good.

Took the last hummie feeders down yesterday. Even the bees are gone now....too cold for them to be out.

I miss the hummers.....

Our fall bugs and birds are out in force. The chickadees and titmice are invading the seed feeders, and the spiders are making egg sacs.

We have lots of feather shrubs around here right now.

I saw the wren building a nest in the bird bottle. I forgot to take out the abandoned summer nest, but I guess she did it herself.

Bird bottle?

A really cool birdhouse from Colonial Williamsburg. It's a very local thing around here.

http://www.williamsburgmarketplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductView?catalogId=12118&storeId=10001&categoryId=13938&itemOrDescription=bird+bottle

Oh.....that's kinda cute. Wish it wasn't so expensive, I'm sure the birds here would love those.

That is neat. I'll think about ordering one.

You can make your own out of food cans. Larger bean cans work great. They don't look like the ones on that site, but you can paint them to be really cute.

No matter what you use, put them under the eaves so there's shelter when the birds sit on the perch.

Have any pics of that made from cans BTW?

I don't. I've seen them for sale in little artsy shops around here. I'll try to remember to take pix if I see another one.

Please do....I'm the crafty type and would love to see one.

I saw the first hummies of the season today. I have sugar water out, and it seems to be well-loved by the skinny little birds. They look like they're a bit tired from their long trip. I made sure to make the ratio a bit higher in sugar to get their strength up.

Haven't seen any here.

Starting to get the territory fights at the feeders. The girls are chasing each other around. So far, the most I've seen at once is three. I hope it's a bumper year.