In case you were worried about the fate of your annual Rufous
Hummingbirds, we now have four of them, males, at our feeders, along with
about eight of our summer Black-chinned and one ringing Broad-tail (the
sound is only slightly higher pitched than the unique secondary ringing
sound of Pratt and Whitneys on B-17's leaving Boeing Field on their maiden
flights, crossing West Seattle in the early 1940's -- yes, I remember.)

All the Rufous have Washington plates with conservation parking stickers --
so all of yours have made it here just fine. In fact, one of them
acts suspiciously like the alpha male we had in Silverdale.

We expect your E. WA Calliopes in a week or so, to round out our species
count at four. Too bad the Annas stick to the coast.

The Rufous are typically territorial -- i.e., any territory they enter
is "theirs." But the Black-chinned just ignore their Luftwaffe-style
attacks out of the sun. The Rufous are quite beautiful with their shining,
copper-colored intimidation hover, tails spread at full Monte, rocking back
and forth like manoeuvreing battle Starships, throats at full Estee' Lauder
red, ignoring being ignored . . .

Send more . . .

Temp at 6PM = 100 degrees, humidity = 5% We bask in it. The pool is at
87 degrees. We bask in it. This has been our "hot week." Next week we
will return to low 90's, followed, hopefully, by our seasonal monsoon of
huge, thundering rains through August.

Our treasured Linger dragonfly rules over our back yard.

Jerry Blinn
Placitas, NM -- 20 No. of ABQ
<jerry at avisys.net>


E-mail from: Jerry Blinn

AviSys Web Site: <www.avisys.net>
AviSys EMail: <support at avisys.net>