Earlier this year in the summer, a neighbour asked me to watch over his place while he was away. This mostly entailed me filling up his birdfeeders when needed with scoops of unhulled sunflower seeds or sugar water.
Many, many birds visit his feeders on a regular basis. Among the most common year-round are sparrows, chickadees, and nuthatches. In the summer, the air is alight around his home with the buzz of hummingbird wings and their tiny battle cries of extreme territorial spirit. Grosbeaks also come to visit in the warmer months.
When I watched his place this particular stint, I greatly enjoyed the routine of heading over to check on things and then sitting on his deck to watch the birds come and go. My household has never had birdfeeders (for good reason, and mainly one – cats). It was a privilege to spend time so close to these feathered creatures and observe them eating and conversing.
One morning I decided to bring my camera along. I managed to get some photos of a curious male black-headed grosbeak watching me through the rails on the deck.
Constantly there were the hummingbirds, whirring and zipping to and from their feeders and chasing each other off spitefully. There were quite a few varieties: calliope, rufous, and ruby-throated at least, though maybe others. I didn’t get the best photos of them. They were just too quick. (I wrote another post quite a while ago with some better shots of hummingbirds, which you can read here.)
This post was meant to simply be a glimpse into summer birdwatching and the curious beauty of small birds. I’ll be returning to this series later with more photos of birds of prey, so stay tuned.
Thank you for reading. This post is part of a series, An Avian Anthology, that I’ll be continuing throughout the next few months. For the first part in this series, click here.