Last evening we celebrated Conners birthday number 11!  Congrats to Conner!  Let’s go fishin!  But wait, he has to go shopping for his birthday gifts!  Fishing will have to wait.

Speaking of waiting.  After the party, the humming birds came out in full force to get a nightly drink before retiring and so, with one of the guests having never had a humming bird land on her finger we decided that would be a good thing to try and let happen.

Here is the scene.  Three fingers placed near the feeder.

Everyone has to hold as still as they can.  No quick moves, no heavy breathing.  Sort of like turkey hunting.

Each of the contestants did their part and soon the birds were flying all around.  At one point I counted 8 birds in the vicinity.

And so we wait.  Birds came and went and some came very close to landing but in the time I had to photograph the scene only one did finally land.

This was a near landing.  And the ladies finger is the one who had never had one land before.  It took a seasoned vet to get a bird to finally perch while eating.  Even with wings still flapping you can clearly see “The Eagle Had Landed”!

When I was growing up we had very few humming birds around.  At least I did not see many and I’m not sure why.  My oldest brother in law actually told us kids that humming birds didn’t have feet.  We have proof they actually do have feet!

Give it a try sometime and try not to hurt the delicate little birds.  Get yourself a feeder sort of like the one in the picture.  Mix sugar water up at a ratio of 1 cup of sugar to 3 cups of water.  Heat the mixture to make sure the sugar dissolves totally in the water.  Add a couple drops of red food coloring and after the mix is cooled, put it in the feeder and hang it outside.  It doesn’t take them long to locate the feeder and when they do, make sure you have extra juice for them to eat as they will drain the feeder in just a couple of days.

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

June 11, 2012