For those of us in the southern parts of Canada and northern United States, we are starting to see the Hummingbirds set up house. I love to watch the hummers and for such a small bird they can be pretty aggressive!
Hummingbirds are coming so get those feeders out there if you want them to stick around!
We feed them every year and this year we have more than ever before. We have somewhere in the vicinity of 8 to 10 feeders up (including one Oriole feeder, though they prefer the hummingbird food anyway!). The reason we started putting so many up is because the little guys seem to be pretty territorial and will actually fight over the feeder. With the large amount of feeders we have up now, it helps because they are all over the yard this way.
We have both plastic and glass hummingbird feeder types and have found that both have positives and negatives. The plastic becomes brittle in the elements and tends to crack after a few years. They also don't come as clean as the glass ones. On the other hand, the glass ones are breakable. With multiple dogs and cats around, breakable is not good!
So here I am, out working in the garden this weekend and teaching the dogs a Down Stay (ok, so my guys know it and the foster has no idea so they were practicing what they already know and the foster was learning Down Stay!). We had a good time and were able to Down Stay for as much as 30 minutes at a time without needing to shuffle.
Here's a question for everyone out there ... you know how you are supposed to be the strong leader who isn't afraid of anything and is their solid wall they can lean on? Ok, so how are you going to be the "strong leader" when you have these hummingbirds divebombing your head?! Yikes! They sound like a 747 coming straight at you and then at the last minute they veer off. Maybe I'll move the feeders OUT of the garden in the next few days ... at least until everything is planted!
7 comments:
LOL!!!! I can see you try Down-Stay as the fearless leader with hummingbirds dive bombing you! How cute! Thanks for the reminder, I need to get my feeders out...away from where I usually work with the boys :)
BTW, I had a major break through with our new dog last night and I'm so excited that I have to share. I've been working with him off leash on trails around my house where it's quiet and safe and don't have to worry about traffic, etc. Anyway, we've been working on WAIT, which means if you're up ahead of me and I say WAIT, put your butt down and wait! He's been doing really good at stopping, but he'd either stop in his spot and sniff, or come back to me and then I'd have to tell him to sit before he got his reward. Well last night I said WAIT (just once!), he turned around, faced me and dropped his butt right to the ground and stayed there till I got to him! And he didn't just do it once, he did it twice!!!! It was so awesome!
I know it doesn't sound like a big accomplishment but with all the trouble we've been having with him with anxiety seperation and then stubborness about doing what he's asked to do, it really felt like I won a blue ribbon. I was so happy! Beaming happy!!!!! Three cheers for Dominic the stubborn Pitbull!!!! There's hope for us yet! :)
Hip Hip Horray!
Hip Hip Horray!
Hip Hip Horray!
Three cheers. That is an Awesome accomplishment!! Woohoo! Congrats. Sounds like he's figured it out!
Thank you! It felt great!!!
Just pay no mind to the dive bombing. The hummers will work around you, fear not yerself! We call them the *jet fighter pilots* cuz that's how they fly & do their territorial dominance thing. Go about your gardening because they will go about their feeding no matter what.
It's a lovely thing that you consider them!
LOL!
Oh, yeah, Hummers love to scare me. They have such an evil sense of humour.
Flip will say "eeeek" to bumble-bees, but she's fearless when it comes to snakes and moles and squirrels and chipmunks...
Blaze just wants to swim and play Frisbee...
Very focused, is my puppy.
The hummingbirds around me apparently don't read the same books everyone else does. We have hummingbirds year round (up in the Sierra Nevada foothills). So we get to deal with the dive bombers all the time. (Cute little varmints are eating us out of house and home, have to fill a large feeder every day!) Of course they only dive bomb me, my grandma (who feeds them religiously) practically gets perched on and serenaded. Good luck to all in their outdoor obedience training and try to avoid bright colors! LOL!
Sweetpea_path ...
"Just pay no mind to the dive bombing"
That's easier said than done for me!
I do try my best to ignore the dive bombing ... unfortunately, I have an uncontrollable reaction to bees and wasps - I can't seem to stop with the flapping arms and flailing limbs combined with the whining that comes out of my mouth. It has something to do with getting a wasp stuck inside your ear as a child with the stinging and the screaming and the tears ...
I know that hummers aren't supposed to sound like bees, and I keep trying to remind myself of this! Unfortunately, they are just so similar that I can't always convince myself that it is true.
GoLightly ...
"Flip will say "eeeek" to bumble-bees" ... I wish ours did that!! Bumble-Bees have turned into "the bestest snack ever" for one of our dogs. She will chase a bee around for hours until she finally snaps it - then of course it stings her and we have to deal with whiny puppy and antihistamines ... We do call her off them, but it's easier to prevent her from eating a piece of steak on the floor than a bee in the air!
musterz ...
"Cute little varmints are eating us out of house and home, have to fill a large feeder every day!"
They sure do eat an awful lot! It amazes me how much they will eat in a day; let alone a week. This is why we have so many feeders - because they would have to be refilled multiple times daily if not.
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