When I'm not surveying I sit quietly out front with my morning coffee and watch the mountains, trees, birds, and a collared lizard. She lives in the north Italian Cypress at the front entrance to the house and descends about 8:30 a.m. to position herself on the trunk about five feet from the ground, facing down, in ambush for any bug that comes by. She can really scurry fast. This morning a hummingbird was about a foot away from the lizard, just checking it out, curious. Life is good.
Sounds to me like you have learned to "stop the world."
Way to go!
????
Loyal
Nice description, beats staring off into the distance at the headlines on your phone.?ÿ
We have two different hummingbird feeders directly outside a couple of windows.?ÿ One is the absolute favorite until it is empty then they grudgingly go to the other one.?ÿ Wasps are a huge annoyance once they discover the feeders.
At present we are receiving dusk and dawn visits from giant rats under our apple tree that is about 100 feet from the house.?ÿ Most of them have small sets of antlers but a few have up to 10 or 12 points.?ÿ Typically arrive in groups of four to eight at a time.?ÿ I call them giant rats because they cause many thousands of dollars of damage to our soybean fields between planting and harvest time.?ÿ Would love to find a way to corral them all, load them in trailers, haul them to the middle of some place with a population in excess of 50,000 and dump them out in a city park.?ÿ The chaos they would cause might help get some of the wildlife policies changed in a hurry.
Hummingbirds. After a day of surveying I was sitting on the porch with my party chief at the time. Drinking refreshments and watching the hummingbird feed at his feeder. I theorized that the hummingbird would struggle to get any sugar water as the vacuum built up the more the feeder emptied. I figured his tongue wouldn't be able to overcome the suction created by the ever increasing empty space in the sphere of the feeder. Refreshments and my logic convinced my party chief that a heated needle would pierce the plastic sphere and allow air to fill the void left by all the sugar water the hummingbird was drinking. As soon as he pierced the sphere the ornamental flowers containing the holes for the hummingbird to feed from erupted in an outpouring of red sugar water all over the porch.
I'm lucky I'm still alive and able to tell the story.
Oh yes hummingbird feeders are attractants for less than hummingbirds, including rats, roadrunners & various other birds, wasps & bees, ants and other vermin.
I ran a few feeders for a decade or so outside a window and learned take them in at night stored in a bucket to keep unwanted critters out.?ÿ Also if no hummingbirds drain the feeder in a week or two you have to replace the feeder's contents because it becomes sour and can make them sick.?ÿ No need to buy commercial red feed; you can make your own by boiling water and sugar cheap and the redness has no effect.
I love them as they're on the edge of death every day if they don't find sugar flowers to sustain their high energy lifestyle, and become comatose at night in their nests to conserve energy.?ÿ I've found one or two in their nests at dusk in the desert and been able to hold them in my hand for a few seconds before returning them.?ÿ Truly amazing creatures.
I want to know how ants know where the feeders are located.?ÿ I've seen a two-way trail of ants make it up and back the 2' from the ground to the bottom of the porch post, then 7' higher up the post to the drip rail of the porch, then laterally about 10' to the hanging feeder and then down the string to the feeder.?ÿ The darned thing is hanging 7 or 8 feet in the air and the ants still know where it's at.
@mike-marks It is almost time for the swallowtail nectar bats to show up at night. Just a few at first then a feeding frenzy that will drain the feeder in an hour. Fun to sit out there and watch them. I use a red light but they don't care either way. It is beyond me how they can get any nectar as they dart past.
ever consider offering private land hunting access with your Dept of Wildlife or structured hunts with mobility challenged people and novice hunters with a master hunter instructor with the same??ÿ Could be a great way to clean them up and get some good vibes and stuff like that. Yeah.
ever consider offering private land hunting access with your Dept of Wildlife or structured hunts with mobility challenged people and novice hunters with a master hunter instructor with the same??ÿ Could be a great way to clean them up and get some good vibes and stuff like that. Yeah.
Sounds promising...
"Honest buddy, I'm not trying to steal the deer you just shot.?ÿ I was just trying to get my saddle off of it..."
Having any opportunity to sit unabated and enjoy your surroundings an become a part of the natural surroundings are some of the most rewarding time in your life, enjoy.
All of the deer need to be removed.?ÿ Their presence has brought the true vermin to our area.?ÿ Better stop at that.
?w=640
