A Day in the Garden

I finished all of my "schoolwork" by 1pm, so I treated myself to a gardening session.  I have a small garden surrounding an odd piece of fencing.  This year, I resolved to turn it into a cottage garden, hopefully full of flowers, if the seeds I planted come up.

But the day was made sweeter by two things: first, I pulled up three carrots.  I've never successfully grown carrots before, so this is a big deal.  They aren't very big, but I ate one, and it was yummy.  Here are two of the carrots:

Second, I took some pictures of hummingbirds.  I have a feeder on the fence piece, and, as I was working, the hummingbirds flew all around me.  I couldn't understand why I had to replenish my feeders so often.  Today, I discovered that I have five (5) hummingbirds competing for them.  They are fearless.  I took quite a few pictures, and they ignored me.  Here's one:

All in all, a good, relaxing day.  I planted more beans, onions, and carrots!  Let's see if these sprout.  The rest of the plantings are coming along just great.

The Hummingbird Wars

I realize that, since the semester has begun again, I need to keep up with my blog so my students will have something to laugh at...I mean, "read."  I could recycle blogs, but that's one type of recycling I'm not in favorite of--"The Best of Ms. Smith's Blogs."  I don't think so.

So, today, after I finished reading freshman diagnostics (finally) and grading a quiz for my 215 class and re-reading a couple of stories I need to teach tomorrow, I went outside to enjoy the freakishly fall-like day and watch the hummingbirds duke it out in the back yard.

I learned something about hummingbirds when I was in Colorado.  They make noise.  I don't mean just the wing noise; they make sounds that I'd describe as "twittering."  Maybe that's where the Twitter site took it's name.

What I've discovered during my numerous afternoons of watching them is that they are aggressive with other birds, too, not just their own kind.  They'll go after a Jay or Cardinal if those birds get in their way; hummers will also chase wasps and bees away from feeders, but I haven't noticed them going after butterflies.

Hummers attack each other physically.  Today, during a quiet stretch when the other birds had gone off, I listened and watched as three hummers chased each other around the yard.  They "chest bump" each other--well, maybe not exactly, but they fly straight at one another and try to knock each other off flight.  One hummer hovered around the feeder, and another much smaller hummer flew at him and knocked the large one sideways three times.  And, at times, I thought they must be fighting with their beaks--I thought I heard some "clacks" in there.

I took Middlemarch out with me to read, but I didn't make it through two pages before the hummers claimed my attention.  One of them--the smallest, most aggressive of the three--sat on the clothesline closest to my chair.  I managed to get a good look at him/her, and the hummer sat still for a good five minutes.  It's not true that they are constantly in motion; these guys sit still plenty.

Watching the birds is one of my favorite past times.  It's relaxing and informative.  Of all the birds, the hummers are my favorite.  I wish they'd hang around all year, but I know they have to migrate.  I still keep the feeders out and filled all the time, though.  I can't ever tell when one of them might need a drink before its long journey southward.