Well, the long hot summer is finally ending! I see it has been about 4 months since I last reported.
Over the summer the hummers were busy fighting for the feeders and raising young. This year we don't have as many as usual. The ladies at Wild Birds Unlimited said it is due to the drought here. In mid-July, on cue, the Rufous hummers showed up in all their copper-colored glory. They offer more entertainment as they try to stake a claim to the feeders from the locals. Now, though, the numbers have sharply dwindled. The adults seem to have left around the first of September and now it is just the juveniles fattening up to leave in a couple weeks. We usually keep our feeders up until the middle of October to catch any late migrators.
Speaking of migrations, we have yet to see any of the great flocks of Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes coming down from the north but I bet they will start soon. Albuquerque will be having its annual Balloon Fiesta starting October 4th and we usually see the migrating flocks then.
As to other bird news: According to the calendar (where I make bird notes), in June we had some Lesser Goldfinches come to the thistle feeder for a few days. The goldfinches tend to come and go during the year. In July, I see the Rufous showed up on the 19th. Then we had a couple of Broadtail hummers arrive on the 31st and they stayed just a couple days. They usually are found at higher elevations around here. We are in the river valley, so it is unusual for us to see them. We didn't see any of the calliope hummers this year. They usually pass through in early August and stay a couple days. On August 22nd, we had a pair of Downy Woodpeckers chasing each other around in the trees. On the 27th, a Scrub Jay arrived, squawking for his peanuts. The next day we had a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches chasing around in the trees. The Roadrunners had three chicks this year and they spent most of the summer practicing their hunting skills in our field and terrorized the local birds here.
Now in September, last week the woodpeckers began to arrive. On the 17th, I saw a Ladder-back Woodpecker and the next day I saw a Hairy Woodpecker. We have also noted the return of some Robins to our valley home. They usually move up in the heights and the mountains in the summer. The Mourning Doves had several babies this year. One day I counted 7 doves in the trees around us. But they have left us now too.
The Scrub Jays are favorites for their entertainment. They have been busily taking our peanuts and hiding them. This year we've had two chicken hens living in our yard. They came over from some neighbor down the block. One made a nest under our Pampas Grass and laid 16 eggs. She sat on them for a couple months before I finally removed them. Since there was no rooster around we knew there wouldn't be any chicks. We have named her Mazey from a cartoon I once saw about a crazy bird named Mazey (or was it a Dr. Seuss story?). She has pretty much stayed in our yard ever since. We can't find where she's roosting but she is up bright and early every day. The other one still goes home at night, as far as we know. We call her Chicken Little because she will run across the open spaces squawking like "the sky is falling." They sure are nice to have around though. They have been digging and scratching all over our yard and have really controlled the pests, like lawn grubs and snails! The other day Mazey had a big green tomato worm and wouldn't share it with Chicken Little who was very upset. Ahhh, life in the country.
Well, that's it for now. We'll catch up some more later. Hopefully, it won't be quite so long a time. TTFN