Up again at 6:30 a.m. to observe
the birds. Again, it was daylight, but
the sun wasn’t streaming into the yard yet. Hummers arrived first at 6:38, then
a sparrow jumped on the suet at 6:39. After the first one made its move, more
came tumbling out of the bushes.
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Today, I did not go back to bed; I sat out in the chair to read. But
hummers fussing at each other drew my attention.
I watched as one hummingbird took
control of the area again…sitting in the tree and chasing away all who would
dare approach the feeders. It was ruthless!
I tried getting pictures of it
sitting in the tree, but a small branch usually messed up the focus. At one
point, though, I thought I saw a light orange breast. No way…another Rufous?
The sun had popped over Newman Peak, so I tried tracking it as it chased
the others, which was not an easy task. I was waiting for it to get into
sunlight to see the color of its back feathers. But I’m guessing the orange
color I’d seen may have been a result of the glow of the rising sun, because I
eventually saw that this one was a male black-chinned hummer by the iridescent
purple line on its throat. I know that the male Anna’s Hummingbird is a
territorial chaser, but I don’t know much about black-chinned hummers other
than they’re usually the ones being chased away by the Anna’s. All About Birds
website had this to say about the male: perches atop high snags to survey its
territory, watching for competitors to chase off. That certainly describes what I saw this morning. At one point, it took on three hummers at
once as they were hovering near the feeders. Sort of like a sheriff with a fast
draw taking on a crowd of bad guys in a gunfight.
Then suddenly the frenetic chasing stopped.
The hummers were acting almost civilized, even sharing feeders at times. Was
the bully gone or had he simply given up? Maybe the breakfast rush was over,
and he decided it wasn’t worth the effort anymore. Anyway, things were calmer
at the feeders, just the usual ‘get out of my way’ type of fighting. I googled
“are hummingbirds feistier in the early morning” and this came up as an answer:
Torpor Recovery: Hummingbirds
use a state of deep, cold-weather sleep called "torpor" to save
energy overnight. They need to quickly re-warm and fill their energy reserves,
making them frantic in the morning.
Territorial Behavior: This intense
need to feed makes them very defensive of food sources, leading to increased
fighting, chasing, and buzzing, especially during the first few hours after
sunrise.
Sort of like “I need my morning coffee
before I can play nice with others”.
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Flowers on bushes behind the camper are
popping open. Haven’t noticed any hummingbirds near them, though butterflies or
maybe moths have been on them.
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Yesterday, the peanut butter crumbs and
mealworms were gone from the platform feeder. Nothing left but bird seed, so I
threw it on the ground and refilled the feeder with just peanut butter crumbs
and mealworms. This morning the mealworms were gone with most of the crumbs
still there, and the sparrows were happily picking up the bird seed on the
ground. Go figure.
I replenished the mealworms, but not the
crumbs. By 2 o’clock, half the mealworms
and all of the peanut butter crumbs were gone.
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We rode the e-bikes
to Eloy post office then decided to see what else there is to the town. I mean,
we’ve been coming to Picacho/Eloy for 10 years, and we know where the important
places are: IGA, post office, gas station, hardware, etc. Kim was curious as to what else Eloy offers. We found a little Mexican restaurant farther
down Main St. from the post office. It was past lunchtime, so we went in to check
it out. Based on the accent of the man behind the counter and the fact that he
spoke to the cook in back in Spanish, I’d say we found a tiny authentic Mexican
restaurant tucked into the middle of Eloy. Nico’s is the name and good
Mexican food is its game! Will add
this to the list of things to look forward to when we’re out in Arizona.
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Took a ride to
Casa Grande for various errands. Kim struck out at four places for a camera stand;
we managed to spend too much at Wal-Mart and still forgot a few items. Typical
for us.
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The scene was
very dramatic as the sky over Newman Peak got darker while the foreground wasn’t
dark at all. Not sunny, but not dark
either. Made for a good contrast. The clouds appeared to be heading in a
northwesterly direction so I thought maybe
the storm would miss the campground. What we discovered upon arriving back at
our campsite is that it had already rained there. Not horrible bad but the
ground, the chairs, the bikes, etc. were wet. The storm we were watching passed
by us with only a few raindrops falling; the air is cooler, though.
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The threat of
rain isn’t over until 11p.m., according to the weather app. It’s 8:15 and we still don’t have rain, but we
have clouds. Therefore, no imaging tonight.
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