Hello all,



I was out of town for 10 days, and when I returned much had changed. There
were now many more plants in flower, and much less activity at the feeders.
Daily sugar consumption has dropped from a peak of 25g on 15-Feb to 15.5g
today. Unfortunately I was not here to watch how the change took place, but
from the data points I have it seems to have been nearly linear. The largest
number of birds around just before sunset has been 5 males and 1 female,
also down from a mid-February peak. I assume that as the number of food
sources has increased the birds have become more dispersed.



On the territorial front, Attila is still around, but is being squeezed on
four sides by other males. One of these does not venture very high up in his
tree, and only sings the first phrase of the song - I assume that he is a
relatively immature male.



Attila had an interesting encounter with a female today. She alighted on the
feeder by the front door and started to drink. As she fed, he flew round
three bushes that surrounded the feeder - each bush about 20 feet away. At
each bush he did the whole Anna's song, and flashed at her. He then went
back to the first bush and started again. This continued while the female
was feeding, and after she retired to a bush near the feeder. She then moved
within the bush, and when I got sight of her again, she was bobbing and
weaving with the song. I stepped indoors to grab the camera. When I returned
they were both flying in very tight circles, about 1 foot off the ground,
near the base of the bush where the female had perched. They then shot off
in a chase and disappeared. I assume that this activity was a prelude to
mating, but there was no dive display as I would have expected.



There is no sign of any nesting activity, either from cotton waste being
gathered or construction on any of the four nest houses. The web cam did
show activity at one nest house, on 24-Feb at 16:10, and again on 26-Feb at
16:32, but this seems to have been an inspection only.



I'll keep you posted!



Dave Nuttall

NW Bellevue

MailTo:dave_nuttall at yahoo.com