Our adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is still with us, and now
has a new heated feeder which he loves. The make of the feeder is Hummers Heated Delight.
Unfortunately,
we also have one or more hawks hanging around terrorizing our feeder
birds. We have yet to see a hawk, but that is also the norm. The
feeder birds when a hawk is around either freeze, as the hawk looks for
movement to detect prey, or they bolt for cover and do not reappear,
often for an hour or more. The most likely hawks in our yard are either
Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawks, as their primary prey is other birds.
Now
back to a brighter note, Our first new fall visitor was a Fox Sparrow (pic 1). Lately we have had a regular Hermit Thrush for about 2 weeks (pics 2-4). He first
started coming to our bird-creek in the backyard, but soon spotted the
Robin feeding on top of the platform feeder, so he checked that out,
found some raisins, and has been returning for raisins. You will notice that in pic 3 he is signaling the Robins where to go. In pic 4 he is at his diplomatic best by the bird-creek just before Biden's Diplomacy summit.
