Hungry Hummingbirds

All is well here now.  Thank goodness!  Bill and I took a ride around our development as well as the development next to us.  Some major tree damage but otherwise we basically dodged a big one.  I didn't even have any roof shingles blow off like I did this past spring during a heavy windstorm.

The windy remnants of Irene are still here, breaking up my too big knock-out rose bushes outside my sunroom windows.  They needed trimmed back anyway.

Bill and I ventured out of our development (no, we didn't seek the permission of the AUTHORITIES - hear that Wayne?) and took a drive to the town of Milton to inspect our friend Bob C.'s house to make sure there was no damage (there wasn't).  We saw his neighbor M.J.  She smiled and waved at us.  Life is getting back to normal.

The video posted is of our hungry hummingbirds.  Irene totally messed up their food source which is plentiful around the house.  I make sure I plant a lot of flowers that are humming bird friendly and they know it.  They come back here every summer to lay their eggs and raise their little ones, all the while feeding off of our salvia and impatience plants.  Irene's tropical downpour has temporarily cut off that food source for our diminutive avian friends.  That's all right, we have plenty of humming bird nectar to supplement their natural food source.

The sun is out but the winds are still blowing, with gusts up to thirty mph.  Life is slowly getting back to normal.

Does it feel like a Sunday to you?  It doesn't to me either.

Hungry Hummingbirds

The worst is over (I hope).  I awoke this morning at 4:23 a.m. exhausted.  Yes, exhausted.  Not because I was outside in the sturm und drang of Hurricane Irene but because I was worried about a tornado hitting our house.  As I reported in my previous blog posting, a tornado did hit in nearby Lewes, totally destroying one house and damaging fifteen others.

I haven't got out and assessed the damage in our neighborhood here but I do see my neighbor Barbara's beloved cherry tree listing at a 45 degree angle.  Of course my beloved impatience are gone which I fully expected to happen with the deluge of water that was dumped on us yesterday by her highness Hurricane Irene.  However, I usually lose those impatience anyway during a heavy thunderstorm which happens almost every summer so no big loss there.  I will miss the that riot of color in the front of our house.

We didn't lose power!  Of that I am so thankful for.  Wow.  I did lose my satellite TV for several hours because of the heavy cloud cover and rains but that was also to be expected.  My satellite TV reception is back now and the news is all about New York and its environs which are about to be smacked in the face my Irene in a few hours.

We still have winds around here but nothing like those sustained winds we had yesterday for about twelve hours.  Man did that ever get old after the first ten hours or so.  The winds began about two in the afternoon and kept up until I went to bed at about 11:30.  I woke up at about 2 am. I think that is when the roaring winds finally stopped.  Oh how sweet that silence was.

I'm still keeping the bathtubs full of water just in case Tidewater (our water supply company) decides to turn off the main water supply.  We got a TON of water yesterday from Irene.  The retention pond at the end of our development, which has been a dry desert bed all summer, is now a beautiful pond. My neighbors at the end of our development now have their much desired "water view."

I have a headache and am still exhausted by all the drama of the past twenty four hours but I am so thankful that we survived intact from this latest calling card from Mother Nature.

Note:  the video on this blog was taken this morning of the many humming birds that are now feeding at our humming bird feeder.  Their main source of food was cut off during Irene's onslaught.  You should have seen them fighting for position at the feeder yesterday during the height of the storm yesterday, the poor things.  I'm glad we have something out there for them to sustain them during this period of need for them.  Not only people and pets need help during the storm, the humming birds need a little helping hand.

Feathers

The baby bluebirds are no longer naked. See for yourself, they have developed feathers with a blue hue. I check the bluebird box every morning and I am amazed at how fast they are growing. Still not a peep out of them. When I open the front door box, the see a pair of big dark eyes looking at me. In this picture the main baby bluebird quickly took a peek and saw me then went right back to sleep. I think he's getting used to me peeking in his box every morning. Not to worry though, those big eyes open when Mama Bluebird stops by with a tasty morsel. This little bluebird will probably have a long journey ahead of him once he fully develops his feathers and is on his own. I don't know the migration patterns of bluebirds. It seems to vary by food sources and what is genetically implanted in the bluebirds. This is the second year that bluebirds have raised their young in this particular bluebird box. I have two other bluebird boxes surrounding the perimeter of my back yard but they don't seem to prefer those boxes. Perhaps they're facing in the wrong direction. Except for the occasional sparrow, those boxes remained empty during the summer season. Next year I will place another bluebird box on that side of my backyard. Perhaps I can attract another pair of mating bluebirds to raise their young. I now have other visitors to my backyard, humming birds. I don't know where their nest is but there are a lot of them. The humming bird feeder is placed on the railing of my back deck. That feeder receives a constant stream of visitors and needs to be refilled every day and a half. The humming birds are getting so used to me and Bill, that they don't even hum away now when we're out on the deck.