The PhotoHunt theme this week is “Balanced”

Two weekends ago, it was absofreakinglutely freezing here. In Miami, of all places!

My cats were indoors, the plants were as protected as we could arrange. I did worry a little about the birds who visit the feeders in my backyard, but most of all I worried about the little hummingbird who’s been a guest in and around my yard since November. I woke up that Saturday morning to see this:

Poor little guy sat there for what seemed like forever, balanced on the hummingbird feeder, without moving. After a few minutes, he started to move his head around, and began to feed. Normally, I never see him at the feeders, but this seems to be the day he discovered them. Even the hummingbirds decided it was better to not have to work so hard for their food, and the feeders gave him the most bang for his buck. Or bill. Whatever.

After awhile, I was relieved to see him fly up to balance on the telephone wire. I didn’t notice till I started editing these photos, that he seems to be picking at something up there.

If you look very closely, you can see that he has a bit of spiderweb in his beak – and no doubt a spider along with it. Hummingbirds don’t survive on nectar and sugar water all day. They require protein, too, and it usually comes in the form of tiny spiders and insects.

I came to realize that the little guy must have just been groggy – coming out of torpor, a state in which the hummingbird lowers his body functions and goes into a kind of short hibernation, in order to avoid having to feed at night, or in order to survive cold.

Heck of a balancing act, eh?

The PhotoHunt theme this week is “Birds”

Totally cheating, I’m combining my PhotoHunt and Nature Notes posts, again this week. Well, the subject’s pretty much the same – Birds.

Things have been, and continue to be, hectic around here, lately. But I was able to steal a little time to enjoy the increasingly better weather we’ve been having. Of course, good things never seem to last very long – temps are supposed to hover around 88º this weekend. Hardly inspiring the feelings of fall and upcoming holidays!

Still, we’ve had some new visitors:

The Gray Catbird has returned to enjoy snacking at the Beautyberry.

And this lousy picture is of the male Painted Bunting who appeared – if only for a couple of days before apparently moving on to Miz Shoes’ place, several miles away. I was very excited to see the male bunting! I’ve only ever had females come to my feeder in previous years, and have only ever seen one male, years ago, from a distance! So, what happens? The breeze comes up, and it’s nearly twilight, and all I get is a fuzzy image. But I don’t care. I had a male bunting!

In other news, three – count ‘em three – hummingbirds showed up at the pavonia and mystery shrubs! At the same time! For us, that’s more than exciting – it’s incredible! If they stick around, I’ll try to get some new hummingbird photos – not so easy to do, since they seem to prefer the flowers to the feeders.

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Michelle at Rambling Woods is hosting Nature Notes: Signs of the Season, a weekly meme dedicated to challenging us to take a moment out of our hectic lives and notice the seasonal changes – large and small – taking place in nature all around each of us, in our own little corners of the world. Please visit Michelle and all the other participants, and maybe take some of your own Nature Notes!

…and I ain’t got none.

Female Rubythroat Hummingbird

Texas Sage - go ahead & click on it!

As soon as the hummingbirds left us for their migration back North, the bright red salvia that I planted to attract them, went into bloom. Hmmph!

Another hummingbird view is posted in my PhotoHunt Post over at Flamingo Fotos. Please visit if you have the chance!