Memories Of Colorado Hummingbirds

Soaring like an eagle........ not really.

At the Big Show the other day there was a vendor selling hummingbird feeders and it reminded me of the hummingbirds we had at home in Colorado. They would arrive in the mountains in late April and stay until early September. I always looked forward to them showing up because it meant that winter was almost over and it would soon be spring, and I enjoyed taking pictures of them, which is a real challenge because they don't like having their pictures taken and it's hard to get them to smile. The Colorado mountains are a summer nesting area for the hummingbirds and also a stopover for the birds heading farther north.

The hummingbirds are a lot tougher than they look. When they get here in late April it's still snowing and at night will be down into the teens, but they manage to survive feeding on small bugs because there are no flowers that early in the year.

 

The early bird

We would usually put out 4 or 5 feeders, and each feeder had a place to feed 5 or 10 birds.  sometimes all the places would be full and there would be birds hovering around waiting for an opening to feed at. They were a lot of fun to watch, the males are very territorial and fight constantly to protect a feeder that they have decided is their own.

Our array of hummingbird feeders

Hummingbirds have no patience and no manners

On rainy days they would feed between the rain showers

I have only seen 2 kinds of hummingbirds in Colorado, the Ruby Throat which is the most common, and the Rufus which I believe just pass through the mountains on their way farther north.

A female Ruby throat

A classic Hummingbird pose

Male Ruby throated Hummingbird

two Rufus hummingbirds square off.

Male and female Ruby throat hummingbird

Gossamer wings

He let me take his picture but he still wouldn't smile

 Boondocking here in the desert in the winter is a good place and time to attract some hummingbirds, maybe even the very same ones that will be going to Colorado in the spring. I thought about buying a feeder,  just a small one that 2 or 3 birds could feed at that maybe has a suction cup to attach it to a window of the Arctic Fox so I could watch them feed. It would be interesting to think that maybe I'm feeding some of the same birds here that I will be feeding in Colorado when I go back in the summer.
       theboondork