I must admit to a small amount of jealousy, now vanished, from
everyone else's reports of incoming rufous hummingbirds. I'm mostly
housebound still, and have yet to make the trip to Edmonds, so I've
been relying on the feeders in the yard for my birding fix. Since
this is a new yard for me, there's been some interesting differences -
no bushtits, no idea why, a varied thrush couple, and once 3 of them,
that was interesting to watch as they scurried at each other around
the ground under the feeder. But the one I was most looking forward
to was my first yard rufous. We had fairly aggressive male anna's in
our yard at the other house, and while I sometimes saw an occasional
female with some rufous on the sides, I never saw a male in the 10
years we were there. This morning, while I was making my second
latte, a brilliantly colored, and surprisingly small, rufous landed at
the kitchen feeder. He kept popping his head up to check on me, and
fed for several minutes giving me an excellent chance to observe. I
hope he returns soon and gives me a better chance to photograph him!

Liz



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Liz Copeland
http://www.lizcopeland.com - fiber art, pictures!!!
http://www.lizcopeland.blogspot.com - the artist life