Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 13:58:28 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Les Eastman Organization: Harford Bird Club Subject: Hummer Wars Comments: To: BB for Hummingbirds and Gardening for them in the Southeast MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The hummer wars have started at my house. Up until now, hummingbird activity has been pretty slow, with only occasional interactions between adult males, and the birds have been skittish. When the Japanese honeysuckle started blooming recently, activity at the feeders almost ceased entirely. Suddenly, in the last two days, activity has increased dramatically. Both last night and this morning, I could see at least six birds at once jostling over the feeders on my back deck and I could hear even more. They also allow close approach now with one adult male even landing to feed on a feeder I was holding. The first immature birds have also appeared with (what I presume to be) newly fledged males clashing with the adults. The numbers should keep increasing until about the end of August. It's great fun sitting in the gazebo with squadrons of hummers buzzing around your head but it can be quite disconcerting to those who aren't expecting it. They think they are being attacked by giant bees. Les =========== Les Eastman mailto:les@birdtreks.com Havre de Grace, MD Visit the Harford Bird Club Web Page at http://birdclub.harfordhasit.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================