If your local cemetery has a pond now is the time to visit and enjoy the birds. Through the end of migration you may strike it rich. Birds in cemeteries are often a bit more used to humans, and the local residents who are six feet under tend to leave our feathered friends alone! My best local cemetery is Forest Hill. Two mornings ago I had an excellent time.
At the little mud flat / inlet at the top of one pond, some sandpipers were partaking of breakfast.
Solitary Sandpipers (not living up to their name)
Least Sandpiper
Cedar Waxwings
Later in the day I had another Chardonnay and Hummer session in my garden. My Bee Balm is now in full bloom, and the female pictured often sits in a near by tree and guards this scrumptious food … quickly attacking any other hummingbirds that invade her patch. I hope you enjoy the slow motion video. The movie occasionally goes out of focus, but always clears up.
Ruby-Throater Hummingbird
The Movie in 1/4 Time! (video link for email subscribers)
Here in Texas the bee balm is long gone….with the heat. Our ruby-throats are toughing it out until we get a reprieve. Meanwhile I clean and replace the nectar feeder daily with fresh sugar water. As a well known birder says, “I certainly wouldn’t want to drink a coke that has been sitting outside in the heat for 24 hours.”
My brother-in-law and his wife live in rural Granbury, about 80 miles from Fort Worth. They escape your Texas heat each summer with their RV and come to northern Minnesota!