The arrival of Fall means the departure of the hummers

It's been two weeks since we have seen any hummers here. This video was shot on October 1. It's rather sad to look out the window and not see any buzzing activity at the feeders. We went through about 200 pounds of sugar this hummer season, tho', and it was sure fun and entertaining. They are such amazing little creatures!

Now is the time that we have to get the house and yard prepared for winter because by the time we return from our next trip, Old Man Winter will be right around the corner if not already moved in. We're also preparing for two fun festivals in south Texas. We'll be at the Texas Butterfly Festival hosted by the National Butterfly Center in Mission. Butterflies and hummers tend to hang out in the same locations, and this area has some of the best concentrations in the country. Following that we will move up the road to Harlingen and the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. This is one of the biggest birding festivals in the country and a lot of fun. The people in south Texas are very supportive of the snowbirds that descend on the area to escape the northern winter weather.

April and the return of the ruby-throats seems so far away right now, but we can enjoy feeding the winter birds until then. Just hope that we don't "enjoy" too much winter weather *lol*,

Hummingbird fact for today: The brilliant iridescent colors of hummingbirds are are structural colors, not pigment, which means they are reflected by microscopic structural features of the feather surface.