Hope to see little mouths poking out of that nest in a couple of weeks
Just discovered this little native Mum and her bubs taking a stroll under my covered area to take a rest underneath my orange tree. An unusual thing in suburban Brisbane. Mick
Shame about the photo but she was pretty nervous and didn’t hang around
we don’t turn our irrigation on during winter, but will gladly do it to tempt this ‘frequent-flyer’, which enjoys drinking and bathing straight from the lion’s mouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gjMT3xF6g
and here it is eating baby spiders crawling out of the stonework
Great photo. Looksmore like a Red Tailed Hawk from the underside. Red Shouldered Hawks have a very distinctive barred tail from the underside. We have lots of both in our neighborhoods, for sure. And, our lovely White Tailed Kites are back in my area, so neat to watch. If I can snap a pic this weekend (when it’s not raining), I will try to post.
So happy to discover Mama Hummingbird and her nest survived the storm last night. The branch moved, but ended up in a safe spot without breaking. We even noticed that the Holly Leaf Cherry Tree is starting to blossom right under the nest.
So glad you posted, Richard. I was thinking about her little nest and eggs today, wondering if they made it through the storm . Smart little mama hummingbird picked tree close to your house, sheltering her spot a bit. Love that nest, it is so interesting! And, looks like she’s an Allen’s Hummingbird, not an Anna’s, which is a little rarer for us. We have Allen’s here, but our predominant hummingbird is Anna’s, so that is also extra cool.
Count yourself lucky. The little Allen’s hummingbird is much shyer than our more common (and more aggresive) Anna’s hummingbirds. And that she would nest so close to your front door, a double bonus. I don’t get a lot of them at my feeders or in my yard, mostly they move on, along with the Black Chinned hummingbirds that also show up about this time. I have never had one nest in my yard that I have been able to find (they’re very clever about hiding their nests). Now you really need to get that little nest cam going, what a rare treat!!
I have Janet!
OMG, look at their teeny tiny beaks! How precious!
The little nest seemed to be bursting at the seams today. Mama Humingbird kept a watchful eye from a nearby lemon tree, all the while chirping a warning to Janet as she photographed her nest.
Ah, what a good mama bird! And yes, the nest IS expanding! It’s built to expand, in fact. That’s why hummingbirds use spider webs to build their nests - it gives their nest both expandability as well as strength. Pretty cool I think.
Patty, the image resolution I used for this site isn’t all that great – but zoom in on the picture of Mama on the Lemon tree – you’ll see that Janet caught her in mid-song
Wow, they are growing fast!