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The Backyard & Beyond - February 2004 |
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Unless you were off on business or vacation in some other part of the world, you survived the Big Freeze and Big Thaw of 2004 here in the SW Washington area. If you feed birds, you probably saw an increase in the number of birds in your yard and had to fight the snow, ice and cold to keep them fed. We have an Anna's Hummingbird feeding regularly so at 16° for two nights in a row and way below freezing temperatures during the day for several days on end, it was a challenge to keep the hummingbird feeder thawed. Arden brought out the trouble light and rigged it up on the guard grill where he has the feeder so the warmth from the light would keep it thawed. The Anna's would show up just before 8 AM and begin feeding for the day. She was there most of the day and happy to have something to drink. |
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Flyway Articles |
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She didn't loose her feistiness though for when the female Townsend's Warbler came to slurp up some of the frozen drips, the hummer would chase her away. But the warbler was persistent and eventually they both would feed with the hummer get the first chance. The Townsend's not only drank the drips but would work her way up the setup so she could also sip from the tube. The interesting thing was that the hummer also sipped the drips. Was she watching the warbler? Was she trying to keep it away for the warbler? Or was she just taking advantage of the sweet water wherever it was. The two male Townsend's Warblers fed on the suet as did the female but they never found the sugar water. Maybe she just had a sweet tooth (or should we say sweet 'bill'). |
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Since we were stuck at home during the storm, the big past time was bird watching in our own backyard. The yard was busy all day long with a variety of birds. It sounded like a war zone during the night as the ice hit the house while it was thawing. The next day I awoke to the trees clear of ice but still lots of snow and ice on the ground. But where were the birds? The day before the yard was covered with birds but not a bird in sight this morning. I began to fear that they had been sleeping in the trees and were all hit on the head and killed during the night by the falling ice but alas they started showing up again a little later but not in the great numbers as before. Whew! Life was returning to normal in the Pacific Northwest. |
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