"I don't care if you are family or not!"

..."Stay the hell away from MY feeder!"

It's a funny thing about the hummingbirds ... once the babies have fledged and had a week or so with mom, the whole family vibe is over. She will aggressively chase anyone, including her own kids, away from the feeder. This is an adult female who is going through a pretty serious molt (on large you can actually see some of her pin-feathers coming in. She is perched on a branch over one of the feeders and is seen here putting on a defensive posture meant to instill fear into the hearts of other hummers. Terrifying, right? Uh, well, maybe not "terrifying"...

The hummers get so caught up in defending their flower patches and feeders that they sometimes chase away other birds, and even insects. It almost seems as if some form of delirium takes over, causing them to chase anything that moves. Today, I watched one chase a hapless goldfinch all around the yard, back into the woods, and well up into the branches of a hickory tree. And, of course, finches don't eat nectar at all - they are strictly seed eaters. Moments later, I saw a hummber take off after a swallowtail butterfly, which was easily twice its' size. Crazy little birds...

Fun time with my neighbors last night - so much fun that I slept rather late this morning. Hubs is at the new townhouse waiting for various deliveries. The cable/internet was hooked up this morning, so at least he has internet now and can get some work done. In between deliveries, he's cleaning everything. Good man, my Hubs.

I packed a couple more boxes today, but mostly I've just been goofing off and enjoying being outside. Five other shots from today posted HERE on FLickr. And interestingly, several of my photos on Flickr have hit their Explore page this week. One has had over 20,000 views which is kind of astonishing.

Six more sleeps until I see hubs again...

Debbi

PS: Oh, goodness! I just saw that yesterday's blip is on the first page of Spotlight, so thank you!