He's BAAAAAAACCCKK!!!

This morning about 8:00, cat ran right over the top of me to get to the window in a hurry!! I woke up and said WHAT? There at the feeder was my first Rufous Hummingbird!! He was late!! The males show up first on their very long migration, followed by the females 2-3 weeks later, and then the juveniles a week or so later. They nest from April-July, then start their migration back to southern Mexico/Costa Rica.

I have one feeder up right now, but by next week they will have drained it and I will have to put up the other 6 feeders, and fill them daily, and some twice daily!!
They are hungry little buggers!! We only get two kinds, The Rufous and the Allen's, and the females are indistinguishable from each other. The males however are easy. The rufous has a rufous back and side, and a red irridescent head and throat. The Allen's is the same size and color except that he has a green back.

During the breeding period, there can be 8-10 birds flying around the feeders at a time. They are so much fun to watch. They are VERY territorial over their feeders, and while the males are fighting each other off, the females sneak in and eat their fill.

We are in the midst of another wind storm! The sun is out but the wind is coming in off the Strait/Sound/Inlet about 40 MPH! It is still a cold bitey wind too, and the weather just said possibly snow this weekend!

Damn it, the birds are back, It is supposed to be SPRING!!!! At least it will be in two more weeks.

I have a full days work ahead of me for the playhouse. I am doing the lobby wall for the kids' Show Pollyanna, and I have to get their Bio's and head shots printed out and arranged on the lobby wall for the patrons to read at intermission.
I screwed up taking the re-do's on head shots and forgot to change the setting on the camera so Now I have to get them all AGAIN!!!! Arrgghhh!! And tonight I have to go in to MY show The Caine Mutiny COurt Martial and measure the men for their uniforms. Dottie will be busy blocking the 2nd act so I said I would help her measure!

BUSY BUSY BUSY....

POST SCRIPT:

I just got this in an email and could not resist educating the rest of my readers! You all know I love to educate....

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be
transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's
invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when
wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the
process of fermenta tion began again, of which a by product is methane
gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what
could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came
below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined
just what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term
"Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailor s to stow it
high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the
hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of
methane.

Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has
come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.