Cop Car….do NOT ask what KIND of little birds!
I was sitting at the sewing machine yesterday, looking out the window over the garden that surrounds the front sidewalk, and this really big bug flew by. Wait…..it’s not a bug, it’s a HUMMINGBIRD!!!
I have a buddlea shrub in the gardens, a butterfly bush. It’s one of those with the raspberry colored pannicles. There were several hummers checking it out. The birds were a medium sage green. I couldn’t really see their wings because they were beating so fast. I’ve seen pictures of ruby-throated hummingbirds, but I didn’t see any red on these birds. When they were finished with the butterfly bush, they moved on to the red bud tree, just checking to see if there was anything else that interested them.
The butterfly bush also provided me the chance to see the first monarch butterfly of the summer!
Later, working at the kitchen sink, I discovered that hummingbirds and gold finches were swarming over the herb garden. They both were checking out the purple cone flowers, and the hummers liked the basil. The catnip was filled with finches, something drabber than the goldfinches.
I wouldn’t be offended if you called me “a country mouse.” I do love the view out my windows!
Buffy–I, too, loved the view out of your windows. Anyone who would not, well…just what can one say about it?
Oh, your butterfly bush must be lovely. We don’t have the beautiful raspberry color, but one bluish and one pinkish. They are visible (from within the house) only through one of the guest room windows; so, I don’t know what has visited them this year. All I’ve seen are bees and other insects.
Your hummers and undoubtedly female and immature ruby-throats which may have no red on them. It’s a rare event in the Chicago area to have any other kind of hummer. (Of course, there are always strays and migrants that get lured/blown off course!) Birding lesson for the day: Look at the tails. If there is white on the tips of the feathers, they are not adult males.
As to the drabber finches: If they were dull yellowish, they were probably American goldfinches. Females are always dull and males are only bright golden yellow in breeding season.
Well, of course I meant to write, “Your hummers are….”
Cop Car, I’m sure that the planting of your butterfly bush makes sense outside, but it’s a shame that you can’t easily see it from inside the house. They are such lovely plants!
Thanks for the information on the hummingbirds. They move so quickly it has to be difficult to see the tips of the feathers, but I’ll watch. I thought they might be female hummers, but it makes sense that we’d have juveniles now.
I know what the female goldfinches look like. The finches in the catnip were brown. I wonder if female house finches have less red around their heads and shoulders, or if these might be juvenile house finches.
I’m getting quite the education from you on birding! 🙂
Female house finches, in general, have no red, anywhere; but then, neither do female purple finches (I don’t know whether you have purple finches in your area, though.) Our immature male house finches have patches of little red feathers coming in, now; so, yours may have, also.