Mama is on the Nest

Feeding activity has slowed down a bit here. That's because mama is on the nest. There are probably two pea-sized eggs that will hatch in about two and a half weeks. The baby birds are tiny, featherless, and stubby-beaked. Mom will feed them a diet of regurgitated tiny bugs and nectar for about three weeks. Until the babies have feathers, however, she will not leave them for long as they depend on her for warmth. When they finally go out on their own, they are about mom's size, so it's difficult to distinguish the juveniles from the female adults. So right now, activity at the feeders is slower than it was as mom was preparing the nest.

Is this where I sit?

Nice place to sit for a spell.

I'll share it with you.

That's not to say that the birds aren't eating, because they sure are at our house! At dusk our porch looks like the Indianapolis Speedway on race day! But through the day we are seeing just a few birds throughout the day as opposed to the droves of birds we were seeing all day. The feeders on the back deck and on the studio have about the same activity level. Terrie took these pictures today of one "bully" guarding the deck feeders from her Bully Pulpit, except she didn't seem too concerned when another bird slipped in for a drink.

Earlier this month we were in Indianapolis for Orchard in Bloom. Fantastic show but we had to make a visit to the Goodwill Store for heavier coats because it turned off so cold! Following that we were at the The Biggest Week in American Birding near Toledo. Another good show for us. It made no sense to drive home in between these shows, so Terrie was able to fulfill her lifelong dream of visiting the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton. Canton is also home to the Canton Classic Car Museum (worth visiting) and the MAPS (Military Aviation Preservation Society) Museum (definitely worth visiting). We had a good time and of course added to the magnet and shot glass collections. Our final stop in Canton was the Fannie May/Harry London Chocolate Factory! Luckily the weather remained cool and we got all the chocolate home without it melting :-)

In June we will be at the Clara Brierly Festival of the Arts in Peculiar, MO. This is a WAM festival - wine, arts, and music - and we had a really good time there last year. We will also be headed to Des Moines for Artfest Midwest - the "Other" Art Show. ArtFest is offered as an alternative, affordable art show and as a complement to the downtown Des Moines Art Festival. Plus it is indoors!!!

Hummingbird fact for today: Female hummingbirds will usually have two eggs laid on different days. Even though the eggs will be laid on different days, both the eggs will usually hatch on the same day.




Back in Full Force

We left for a couple of days to exhibit at the Spring Bloom Festival in Bloomington, IL. We came home to find LOTS of hummers and LOTS of orioles! It's really amazing how quickly they moved back into the area. So of course Terrie had to start hand-feeding them.

We also now have at least three male Baltimore orioles and their mates, as well as more orchard orioles and their mates. The male Baltimores are just exquisite.

So the neighbor has been recruited to take care of the feeders when we go to Orchard in Bloom in Indianapolis next weekend and the Biggest Week in American Birding the following weekend. Then we'll stay home for a while and just enjoy our birds.

Hummingbird fact for today: Migrating birds of all kinds have adapted to the weather and wait for favorable winds. The ruby-throated hummingbird takes advantage of tail winds constantly. 

The Project is Complete

Daytime picture

As mentioned previously, Terrie has wanted this project completed for a number of years. So she got hummingbird spitters and a pump and a copper tub, and then I built the innards and voila! We have a fountain. The hummingbird "spitters" are from Sprinklites. They came with all the tubing and fittings we needed. The birds have an LED light that comes on at night and changes colors. It's hard to see in the picture because the flash went off, but without the flash, all you can see is the birds and no fountain. The birds "spit" into the top leaf, and then the water falls from leaf to leaf until it goes back into the tub. We still need to get the rocks around it fixed up, but at least it is now in place and working. And the neighbors are all agog!

Nighttime picture

Hummingbird fact for today: Hummers like moving water. And they like to bathe, but the standard birdbath is too deep for them. There are pictures out there of hummers bathing in fountains so we hope our little birds discover this and use it as their own oasis.

All is Right in the World

The flock is returning! This is the earliest we've had a Baltimore oriole at the feeder. We don't even have any oranges - just grape jelly! And we saw TWO hummers at the same time. It should fill up quickly now! Took these pix this morning.

Baltimore Oriole



Baltimore Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Pileated Woodpecker

Hummers Have Returned!!!

You can almost set your clock by the annual return of the hummers around here - April 15. And this year is no exception. Real light activity at the feeders right now, but it WILL increase!

Our three Gulf shows were a disappointment. We were ankle deep in mud at the Oak Alley Plantation Spring Crafts Show. It was so bad, in fact, that the Plantation has cancelled all future shows. They want to keep their grounds looking nice (and who can blame them?) so after 23 years, they have called it quits on the outdoor shows. Art in the Pass in Pass Christian, MS, was a little better. It was just sort of rainy on Saturday, but the forecast for Sunday was for severe storms, so Sunday was cancelled. Of course, the storms didn't develop. Finished out at Festival de les Fleurs in Lafayette, LA. This show was indoors, so it was MUCH better. However, crowds were extremely sparse on Sunday. On the upside, Stokes Garden Center in Lafayette now carries Ozarklake feeders.

Still, we had a good time. We have now seen most all of southern Louisiana, driven out into the ocean to visit Grand Isle, learned about the persecution and exile of the Acadians as well as the cypress and Spanish moss industries, and discovered that Cajun food is VERY good. We've seen Pierre Part and Pecan Island, and have a better understanding of the lives of the Swamp People.We even visited Duck Commander in West Monroe.

We are completing some wholesale orders and getting ready for upcoming shows in Bloomington, IL; Indianapolis, IN; and The Biggest Week in American Birding in Ohio.

And best of all, the hummers have returned to the Lake of the Ozarks!

Hummingbird fact for today: A hummingbird's brain is 4.2% of its body weight, the largest proportion in the bird kingdom.

So Close and Yet So Far

It seems as though it has been forever since the hummers headed south. We're both getting really anxious! And it seems that the northward migration may have begun at long last. The migration map that we like to follow is showing some late February sightings along the gulf coast. Check it out at http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html.

We'll be heading off for Mississippi and Louisiana in a few weeks. We're both ready! We're going stir-crazy here in Missouri. And the polar vortex is headed our way --- again. Spring can't come soon enough!

Terrie has had a project for me to do in her head for a long, long time. And it seems that the procrastination has come to an end. She's gotten all the parts for it and now I'll actually have to build it. Pictures will be posted in the near future (assuming that I actually get to work on it).

Hummingbird fact for today: Unlike most other vertebrates, hummingbirds can see ultraviolet light which may help them find flowers with ultraviolet patterns.

A New Toy for Christmas

A big Thank You to my son Sean and his family for the amazing Christmas present. He sent us a BirdCam since I guess it is rather obvious that we're "into" birds. With no hummers or orioles around this time of year, I put it out to get pictures of my woodpeckers and cardinals. It takes amazing pictures (when it is not pointed into the sun)!!! By the time the hummers get back I intend to have a wifi SD card so we can download pictures and videos without moving the camera. Sooooo excited!

We're ready to escape the winter weather of Missouri and head off to Florida for next week's Spacecoast Birding and Wildlife Festival. This will be a new venue for us. We've been pretty well accepted at the other birding festivals we have done and hope this new adventure turns out as well as the others. At least it's Florida in January - MUCH better than Missouri in January :-)

We'll be at several new venues this year. We plan to try more birding and nature festivals as well as a few garden expos along with some art shows. Watch the "accepted" list; we'll add the venues as we are approved by them. If you are in the Lake of the Ozarks area, plan to attend our March 4 presentation on Hummingbirds at Lake Career and Technical Center in Camdenton, MO.

Hummingbird fact for today: Male hummingbirds are the tiniest warm-blooded animals on the planet. Females need to be a tiny bit bigger to be able to produce eggs, to afford to share their body heat with the eggs while incubating, and to be able to share their food when feeding nestlings.