Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘Hummingbirds’

A Little More Brave

Posted by terrepruitt on July 16, 2018

It was way before 2008 that I first noticed an oriole on our hummingbird feeder.  I didn’t know what it was then.  I got a picture of one on a feeder in 2008.  I don’t know that I saw any more for years. Now they are regulars. In fact I am rushing to post this so that I can go fill the feeder they just emptied. I’ve mentioned before that the feeder we bought specifically for the orioles is way too difficult to clean. It is very narrow and I am not sure I can get the brush in there and get it clean enough. They are much dirtier than the hummingbirds. Or something. It could be that they have to get their beaks all the way in whereas hummingbirds have long tongues. I am not sure, but the hummingbird feeder they primarily eat off of is way more gross than the ones the hummingbirds eat off of. It gets this black sludgy stuff in it. This time of year it is not so bad because I am filling it every three or four days. Our hummingbird feeders come apart and are very easy to clean so we just take the flowers off of them so that the orioles can get their beaks in for the sugar water.

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The orioles have gotten a little more brave as they used to fly away immediately if we even walked into our living room. But now they will stay at the feeder or even come into the yard when we are in the living room. And they are so brave that now they are eating at the feeder that is close to the window. They are tormenting my cat. She climbs up on the cat tower and talks at them. She reaches at her paw for them. There were two on the feeder today while Nessa and I were playing and that quickly distracted both of us.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise ClassesI guess over the summer they have gotten a little used to us so they are not as fearful.  They are still very cautious, but they are less freaky and will stay and eat as long as we are not too close.

My husband said he saw six last night around the feeder . . . that could be why it is empty and I have to fill it.  I know that I have seen two brightly colored ones together, so I know that there are at least two males.  It is difficult to tell the females apart but I have seen at least four together so I know that there are at least four of them.  I have never seen all six together.

Since they have gotten a bit brave I was able to take closer pictures.  So here are a few.

Do you get to see birds in your yard?

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Posted in Birds, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Whose Feeder Is This?

Posted by terrepruitt on July 21, 2017

This is from a long time ago. We kept having orioles on the hummingbird feeder. They used to pick the yellow flowers off the hummingbird feeder. So we bought them an oriole feeder. But they like the hummingbird ones better.  The oriole feeder is really difficult to clean. Could be why they like the hummingbird feeders better. They probably taste better because they get cleaned better.  The hummingbird feeders can be taken entirely apart.  So I am able to make sure I get it ALL cleaned. Since the orioles pick the flowers off the hummingbird feeders so they can get to the sugar water, we just leave one or two off now.

Here you can see a hummingbird looking at the invader. Can you see him? Ya kind have to look closely.

Hummingbird and oriole for the Friday Photo.

 

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Posted in Birds, Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Quick Re-Visit Of Somethings

Posted by terrepruitt on August 31, 2016

I have some follow up information on some of the posts I have posted:

I made another batch of Sweet and Savory Mixed Nuts, actually I made two.  I made one like before actually sweet and savory, and I made a sweet and spicy.  I didn’t measure the cayenne pepper, I just sprinkled a lot more in the mixture.  I also found a packet of crushed hot red pepper flakes in the refrigerator, ya know the kind you get when you order pizza to be delivered?  I used a package of those.  So I don’t know how much that is.  But last I heard it was a good amount.  When I first told John he said, “Is that all?”  And I reminded him I am not really trying to make them HOT, just give them a little warmth.  But then he ate them and said it was a perfect amount.  But ya know, sometimes with things like this it seems like the spices can be all in one spot.  But hopefully the batch he took to work this morning for a snack was just as good.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitOur cats, formerly known as Smokey and Esmeralda, have adjusted to their new names.  They are now Teagan and Nessa.  My hubby and I are convinced that Teagan actually likes her name as about the same time we decided to change it she became a little bit more affectionate.  I think that Nessa likes her new name too, now, but she was quick to warm up to it.  Who knows if cats actually care, but it SEEMS like they do.

When I taught yoga at The Dancing Cat earlier this month, I forgot to mention that they have adopted out eight one cats!  That is awesome.  I am not sure if that number has gone up, but I am hoping for them to hit at least 100 when they close in November.  Again, them closing in November is the last I heard, but perhaps that has changed.

Awhile back I posted about this sugar that I had purchased because it was the only kind in the store.  I had posted about it because I thought that maybe since it was less processed it actually “lasted” longer in the hummingbird feeders.  By “lasted” longer I meant it didn’t get grungy as fast.  Well, I have to take that back as I think it didn’t get grungy because the birds were eating it so fast.  We have had a very active hummingbird community this year.  It is really cool.  Over the many years that we have lived here we have probably had about 10 hummingbirds at a time come into the yard to feed.  But there is usually one very possessive bird that thinks he rules the yard and he spends most of his time chasing all the other birds off.  This year they all seem to chase each other around, but no one bird stands out as the boss.  And we have had more birds than ever.  It is really cool.  I filled five of our six feeders on Friday, today is Wednesday and I filled three again today.  I filled one yesterday.  So in about five days I had to refill our feeders.

Speaking of hummingbird feeders, I still maintain that our old hummingbird feeder, the one that is really difficult to clean, is still the favorite amongst the birds.  They will always empty that one first.  It always has the most birds around it.  I really think they can get to the nectar better because of the way it is designed.  I can’t get in and clean it better because the way it is designed, but I think they like it best.  The birds do eat off the other ones, but they don’t get emptied as fast as the old one.  The new ones, though, as so awesome to clean.  It literally takes less than five minutes each to soap ’em up, scrub ’em down, and rinse them out.  I love it.

We are planning on taking down at least three of the feeders this winter.  I will leave up the two large easy to clean ones and the small one that is super easy to clean.  The hummingbirds LOVE that one.  We take down the oriole feeder, the hard to clean feeder, and the hummingbird bar.  Any birds that are still around will still have enough to eat.  If as many birds that are around now, stay around, I will keep up all the feeders, but the numbers seem to dwindle in October.  We will see.

 

Well, that is all for the updates for now.  I have thought to do a post on some of these things, but then realized none of them really warrant an entire post on its own, so I am lumping it all together!

Posted in Birds, Cats, Misc, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Hummingbirds On A BEAUTIFUL Day

Posted by terrepruitt on June 15, 2016

Wow.  We are having the best weather here in the South Bay Area.  It is June and I have my windows open!  Usually it is too hot and we have everything shut up until it cools down.  At about 8:30 or 9:00 pm we open the house and try to let it cool down.  We keep the windows open for as long as we can hoping that will help keep it cool for the next day’s heat.  But we have not been having heat!  YAY!  So excited.  So loving it.  The other day when I got up, I was enjoying the hummingbirds around the feeders.  There was four to five of them.  When I got home from teaching Nia and yoga, I noticed the feeders were empty, so I texted my hubby asking him if he would make food that night.  He is the expert hummingbird food maker.  That is his job.  I made sure they were cleaned out so all he had to do was “cook” and fill the feeders.  And, today, I was able to enjoy the fruits of his labor.  With the weather being so awesome, I had the doors open so I could hear their chittering.  I can also hear the buzz of their wings.  So awesome.  I love it.

I was watching them fly all around and I was able to take this video.  As I often say when I take pictures or videos – and it sounds lame, but hey, that is the way it is – I couldn’t see what I was shooting.  The sun was very bright and I was at an odd angle – half in, half out of the house.  I was trying not to disturb the birds.  I THOUGHT I was capturing two birds on the feeder.  I also was fascinated by the crazy one that is off in the distance.  See him?  He was flying around as if he were drunk.  It was so funny.  When I looked at the video I was so surprised to see FOUR on the feeder.  I mean, that happens, that is why I wanted to be sure to fill the feeders again right away.  But I didn’t even see them, when I was recording.  That portion of the feeder was out of sight.  Basically only my arms were sticking out of the house trying to capture the birds eating.

I could sit there all day and take pictures and make recordings, but . . . I do have other things to do.

I have not been able to get a good picture of an oriole yet.  They are very shy and fly away the moment I move towards the door or window.  I hope to have all summer long to try to get a good photo.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitI love our hummingbirds – oh, except the on that was getting back at me for walking by him.  I was outside, there was a bird on the feeder.  I didn’t want to wait for him to finish so I squeezed by as close to our yard furniture as I could . . . giving him as wide of a berth as I could.  He flew off the feeder.  I turned around to and said, “Sorry about that.”  And he flew up and then flew straight at me!  Bugger!

They are so entertaining.

As a note . . . there is no added coloring to the water, it is that color because of the sugar.  You can read about that in my post Another Case Where Less Might Be More.

Do you have hummingbirds?  Do you have other birds? 

Posted in Birds, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Another Case Where Less Might Be More

Posted by terrepruitt on June 8, 2016

One day I was in the store and I decided to buy sugar.  I was in the Grocery Outlet.  Do you have those in your area?  Have you ever been to one?  My parents used to go and I wrinkled my nose at that, thinking it was a bunch of weird off-brand stuff.  Then one day I went in there and I discovered brand name stuff for about half the price as you find in regular grocery stores.  Granted most of the stuff in there is snack food and basically over-processed food, but we do eat bread and often times you can find it there for half the price as the other stores.  I had seen C&H Pure Cane sugar there before so I thought I would drop in and get some.  I mean, if I am going to buy what I consider to be less-than-healthy food, I might as well spend less.  Well, they didn’t have any and I didn’t want to go to another store, because really?  It’s sugar.  So I saw something that attracted my attention.  It was  Zulka Morena Pure Cane Sugar.  The package said that it was less processed than other sugar and it was organic so I thought I would give it a try.  I discovered something interesting about it.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitThis sugar is not white like C&H Pure Cane white sugar yet it is not brown either.  It is off white.  Well, when I used it I notice things in it.  What type of things, I don’t know.  They could be pieces of bugs or leaves.  They kind of look like pieces of leaves.  But it somewhat turned me off of using it.  I put it in my sugar container, but I would reach for some other sugar I had before I reached for it.

One day my husband told me to stop by the store to pick up sugar because he was going to make hummingbird food, I said we have sugar.  I actually thought I had seen another bag of white sugar in the closet, but when I got home and looked all we had was the Zulka Morena.  It is used like regular sugar.  It is “regular” sugar it is just processed less.  So I talked him into using it.  He didn’t want to.**updated 04.29.18

Well, he made the food and it came out kinda tan.  It was not clear/white like when we use our familiar white sugar.  It wasn’t cloudy, it was just colored.  I was kind of concerned, thinking perhaps it wouldn’t be good for the birds.  I wondered if they would care.  I wondered if they would notice a difference.  I wondered if they would like it.

The reason I had him make the food (he is the hummingbird food maker in the house so when it is needed, he makes it) was because I had seen some hummingbirds flitting around the empty feeders.  So I was thinking when he put full ones up they would be there.  But there were not. I was worried.  I thought that the food must not be good.  I thought they didn’t like it.  Usually, when we see them at the feeders and we put food out they are right there!  But they weren’t.

I am gonna say it took at least a week for them to come.  But then, it seemed like when I looked out the window, they were always there.  But oddly enough, they were only at one feeder.  Usually they will eat off of both.  One more than the other, but both.  This time – I had seen them at the other feeder once or twice, but they actually emptied one out before they used the other.  So that means that the unused one was there for even longer than the first one.

Our feeders are in the sun.  SUN.  Sometimes the bottles start to have stuff grow in them.  This isn’t good for the birds.  So it is a drag when that happens.  And sometimes it can happen fast.  I mentioned the sun because I figure that the sun is a contributing factor to the growth in the bottles.  It could be the shade.  Either way, sometimes it happens really fast.

You may or may not know that hummingbirds don’t suck the nectar out of the feeders.  Their beaks are not straws.  I had thought that until I saw one stick its tongue out.  So they actually stick their tongue into the feeder.  I believe that the way they eat helps contribute to the stuff growing in the bottles.  So a busy feeder with a few hot days stuff can grow pretty fast.

Well, it is my opinion – I don’t think my hubby agrees with me – that this sugar does not grow stuff as fast.  We had the bottles out there a long time and there wasn’t the weird stringy black stuff that has seen to pop up really fast in the feeders in the batches we made before these last ones.  I think it is cool.

I just cleaned the feeders and my hubby is going to come home and make food tonight.  So we will have them up again by tomorrow.  I am going to watch them again closely and see.  I know there are many things that can contribute to the stuff growing in them, but it seems our last few batches have gotten it awful fast.  So we will see how this new batch fares.

At least the birds seem to like the sugar.  They don’t care about the color.  Who cares that it is not clear, as long as it is not red (the red dye is not good for the birds).

Do you feed the hummingbirds?  Do you have hummingbird feeders?  What type of sugar do you use? What is your recipe?  What type of sugar do you use?

**updated 04.29.18 – please see comments below, as this type of sugar has traces of iron in it and hummingbirds have a low tolerance to iron.

Posted in Birds, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , | 19 Comments »

Re-visiting Our Yard

Posted by terrepruitt on June 13, 2015

I love our yard.  It is very small, but often very full of activity.  This year we have new visitors to our yard.  I know that we have had one once or twice, that I have seen, in the past.  But this year they are regular visitors.  They might have been regular visitors for some years now, but they are very shy so perhaps we just didn’t see them before.  I’ve only seen them twice in years past, as I said.  Since they are shy I don’t have any good pictures of them.  The second we approach any window they are gone.  But our hummingbirds are very brave this year.  I can walk right up to the window where the feeder hangs about six inches away and the birds will just sit there.  They seem fearless.  And we have one that is the largest one I have ever seen visit our yard.  This past week we had a little bit of rain. First it started off here as a mist, then the drops came, but it was a very gentle rain.  Oh my, you should have heard and seen the yard.  There were so many birds it in.  They seemed so happy.  They were just jumping around from place to place.  It was a nice sight to see.  I love that we have so much entertainment in our yard.

The new visitors are orioles.  There seems to be at least four.  There are two brightly colored ones and to “dingy” ones.  They barely look yellow.  One of the dingy ones has a bad leg.  I say that because as she perches on anything there is something that hangs down.  And she doesn’t perch well.  She rocks on the feeders unless she is situated just right.  When she is on one of our towers she hunkers down on it.

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I think the new birds might be affecting our hummingbird population in regards to how many we get visiting the feeders in our yard.  But that is ok.  They need to eat too.

This is why I recently posted Outside Yoga – Easier Said Than Done  because we have so much bird activity.  I get distracted.  Birds are fascinating.  The blue jays rarely just pick a nut.  They will land and pick up a nut, then put it down.  Then pick up another nut, then put it down.  It looks sometimes as if they are shaking it, but I am not sure.  Then they will pick up another one and put it down.  I’ve seen one bird do that a dozen times.  I am so curious as to why.  I have my ideas as to why, but I would love so much for them to be able to tell me.

The collage with the orioles makes me squint because of the out of focus, faded pictures where the oriole has his back to the camera.  They are that way because I was taking it far from a way and through a dirty window and through a screen.  The orioles are very skittish.  The blurry photo where his coloring is bright was from very far away and as soon as he noticed me he was gone.  The one of the oriole in the tree, that is the less-than-brightly-colored female.

The mourning dove has been trying to get to that feeder for days now.  And I say “trying to get” because I have never seen it IN the feeder.  It flies up to the top of it and that is as far as we have seen it get.  But perhaps when we are not looking it actually makes it to the bottom to get the seed.  Tonight my husband and I watched its progress.  The mourning doves are skittish, too, but I think her having won such a hard battle she was not going to just fly away.

Our yard is small, but we are blessed with visiting birds.  What’s in your yard?  Do you have a flower garden?  Do you have a vegetable garden?  Do you have birds that visit?

Posted in Birds, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Outside Yoga – Easier Said Than Done

Posted by terrepruitt on May 23, 2015

I decided to go outside today to do some asana.  I needed to get some sun on my hair because yesterday I put developer on it.  I thought that I could get two things done at the same time:  sun on my hair and yoga practice.  Usually I think to do this when it is way too hot and my preparation for going outside takes longer than I actually last outside.  Today, I kept that in mind.  But I could tell there was a breeze outside, so I thought it would be ok.  Also, it was the latter part of the day so the sun wouldn’t be beating down on me directly or for that long.  So, I went outside.  I had a list of yoga poses that I was going to do.  It went pretty well, except for a few things.

The list starts out with standing poses.  I realized that our windows would serve as a mirror in case I wanted to do some X-Ray Anatomy and check my alignment.  Both proper alignment and improper alignment.  Sometimes it is helpful for me to do the pose incorrectly so I can sense it and see it, and then teach to it better.  So, the reflection was great today.

But . . . . my mat got hot.  I would move to step into a pose and the mat was too hot.  I could stay, it cooled down eventually, but it would leave my foot burning.  A distraction I decided I didn’t want after a few poses.  So I got a towel.  Ok.  Solved that little issue.

I did good on the standing poses.  I was aware of the unhappy birds.  I would see one come flying into the yard, and swoop out.  I figured they had their eyes on the feeder and were heading in then they saw me and would pull up at the last minute.  There was a bunch of tweeting, chittering, and squawking going on.  I even managed to stay in Anjaneyasana longer than I intended.  I was just about to move out of it when two little birds landed close to me.  One on the bird bath and the other on the brass ornament we have out there.  I stayed because I didn’t want to move and scare them.  This was a momentary distraction.  But I managed to stay pretty much focused.

The list of asana, then goes over some prone poses.  Again, not too bad.  I was able to ignore the bugs crawling around on the ground, while I was on my belly. . . for the most part.  They were just ants.  I was even so focused that I only allowed the multitude of strawberries to distract me for a moment.  There are A LOT of strawberries out there.  So tiny and bright red!

Then I got to the supine poses.  As I was lying there looking up at the sky I noticed the wispy clouds.  So I just stayed there a moment in Supta Baddha Konasana looking at them.  As I watched they disappeared.  I thought, “Well, that was so pretty, but I better get back to my poses.”  Then I realized I could just stay in the Reclined Bound Angle and enjoy the sky for a bit.  So I did.  Then a cloud started to form and I thought, “Ooooo, what a cool video that would make.”  So I jumped up to get my phone.  I came back to my mat and got back into the pose and waited.  Then I felt like I really wasn’t doing yoga or getting the point to it, if I were in a pose but holding my camera.  So I put it down.  I finished my list with focus.

THEN, I shot more video.

I am gonna share, you might not be able to appreciate the beauty of the day, but perhaps.  The first one might even be able to be used as a little respite from a busy day.

The other two are me just pointing the camera in the general direction of the bird.  I couldn’t actually see what I was videoing because of the sun.  But it turns out in the second one, I actually captured the hummingbird on top of the stand.  You MIGHT be able to see him.  Then he flies toward the lemon tree, I think he was not happy that he had not intimidated me enough to go away.  Then he flew off in a huff!  Or he could have been upset because I moved one of the feeders.

I enjoyed my yard and got some yoga in.  Oh, and let’s not forget, hopefully the sun helped my dingy hair color!  Hopefully you will enjoy a bit of my yard, too.

Do you ever manage to get any yoga done outside?

 

 

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Assessing The Threat Level – Can It Eat Us?

Posted by terrepruitt on August 16, 2011

Our cat is an indoor cat. She does not go outside. I honestly feel that cats should be able to go outside. There are so many fun things for cats to experience; butterflies, grass, fences, frogs, lizards, flowers, etc. They do belong outside, able to roam, but unfortunately there are also many dangers. In addition to believing that cats really should be allowed to go outside, I feel that people must take responsibility for their pet(s) and that can come with a heavy price tag. Neither my heart nor my wallet could afford having to fix my cat if one of those outside dangers were to injure her. In our neighborhood we have raccoons, opossums, dogs, cats, cars, and sometimes the worst danger of all . . . other people. Not everyone is an animal lover or they might not enjoy a kitty fertilizing their garden — understandable. So we keep our cat inside. She, like a lot of indoor animals, LOVES to sit by any open door or window. She can sit there for hours. She stares and sniffs, and sniffs and stares. She will often go from door to door as if patrolling her yard. My hubby and I feed birds and squirrels in our yard in hopes that they will serve as entertainment for the cat. We have learned that we are overly entertained by our yard animals too. As I have posted before, the animals often distract me when I am doing a Nia routine or working out.

My hubby and I also have animal protocol, if there is an animal in the yard and we are on our way out to the yard, we stop and wait for it to settle or be gone. If we are in the yard and one comes in we freeze and let it do what it is there to do then we proceed. We often will stop what we are doing (pause a DVD, pause our conversation, etc.) to watch the various critters that come to visit. They are very entertaining. They eat, they play, they drink, they take baths. It is all very fun to watch. They can be quite silly.

We used to have blue jays come with their babies every year. They must have nested in our neighbor’s yard, because one year he drastically trimmed the trees and the babies that visit now are not nearly as young as the ones we used to have. So I believe the birds are having their babies elsewhere and sometimes they come here to eat or bath, but they are not here over a period of months as they once were. It is interesting and very amusing watching “babies” learn new things.

I believe the video included in this post is a group of “baby” hummingbirds. They are either babies or they are adults new to our yard and they have not seen the “house” that we allow our cat to go outside in. The hummingbirds swarm around the house to see what exactly is the threat of the animal inside. It is quite entertaining. They did this just a few times and have since learned that she is no threat and they act as if she is not there. The squirrels often check her out though. They climb on the table and peer in at her. She just looks back at them, rarely does she rush at them. She knows she can’t get them, but I don’t think they are always so sure.

On this video you can hear the birds making their little chitter noise. I imagine them saying, “What is it doing?  What is it?  Can it eat us?”

Posted in Birds | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Silhouettes

Posted by terrepruitt on July 30, 2009

I love these.  At first I was disappointed because you can’t actually see the colors, but I looked at them again, and, I like them.

Look, you can see the tiny feet.

He’s not landing because he keeps getting chased off.

Their little feet are so cute!

I always think that we are so lucky because in San Jose, California, we get to see them for a long period during the year.  And we have about eight.  My friend just posted on FaceBook that she has too many to count.  She has to fill her feeders twice a day.  We have six feeders and we don’t fill them that much.  When it is hot, it works out to maybe twice  a week, but when it is cooler they don’t drink at much.

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Hummingbirds In Our Yard

Posted by terrepruitt on June 25, 2009

I love to watch our hummingbirds.  I have always wanted to try to film them.  I know it is almost impossible given our equipment and our yard, but I thought I would try.  Yes, I know I posted hummingbird pictures on my last “whatever” Thursday, but remember, my blog, my rules—and a lot of people seemed to enjoy the hummingbirds–maybe it was the tongue.

I think this is getting to be their kind of weather.  I am going to warn you, you will probably see a lot of them on my blog—hopefully you’ll come back.  They are so entertaining.  And as I always say since we are in San Jose we have them for a long period of time.  It just works out that way with our wonderful weather.

So I was outside for about an hour and a half.  I shot about 100 videos.  Most of them were just a few seconds long because that is how fast the hummingbirds are.  A lot of them are clear, a lot of them are not.  Our camera auto focuses and it has a difficult time with moving feeders. 

My goal was to post a short video of a hummingbird flying and maybe feeding.  Well, just as it was getting too dark to film—and the shots started getting grainy—I got this really long sequence of birds eating, flying, fighting, and just all around being the entertaining birds that they are.  So I apologize that it is over 5 minutes long.  Also, I apologize because I am talking throughout the video, but they actually smack each other.  And they do it audibly.  You might not be able to hear it on the video but I could hear it.  And they would do it right over my head! 

At one point, around 3.28 you’ll hear “wrrrrr” that is a bird flying over me and the microphone. 

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