Charlie and the Nature Factory [Warning: Stunningly Beautiful Large Photo Images]

Silver King said:

Yes, Ma'am. Weren't you also?

Click to expand...

No, I was talking about a REAL fox in my front yard. I thought it was strange that a fox was out and about in the morning since I thought they were nocturnal.



We do have a strip joint in Providence called The Foxy Lady.

I was watering my hummingbird/butterfly bed today and this little female hummingbird kept coming to the agastache and monarda I have growing. I really should one of these days grab my camera and just wait for her to arrive and try to snap a photo. Usually she is very skiddish (though there could be more than one, and I never see males) but today she didn't seem to mind me at all standing there with the hose. The big black wasps that like my fennel kept chasing her away, though.

Only seen foxes (and footage of) in the daytime.

We have a lot of fox around here, plenty of them out during the day.

*looking forward to more hummingbird photos from Tepelus and Ben*

Silver King said:

Do vixens meet there?

Click to expand...

Yes. So I'm told.

I'll have to get the address of where those vixens meet. To alert the authorities, of course.

Meanwhile, I heard a request for more hummingbird pics. Today I went on the screened-in back porch where a feeder hangs in the yard about 8 feet from the porch from a largish dogwood tree. I intentionally have it hanging down below eye level, so I can look down on the birds and see then poke their beaks into the feeder. I don't like how these pics turned out, this pack-of-cigarrette-sized flipcam with the tiny lens doesn't do nearly as well as I'd like, and the screen doesn't help either. But here they are, until I spend some money on a better camera. Also, I see I've resized these pics by different amounts.

First is a customer with a green back (this isn't *only* the camera doing this, the back really looks green):





Here you can see where he turned his head so his beak goes into the next "flower" to suck up some sugar water:



Here's one on the side quietly feeding:



Until another comes along:

They're so cute! Little females is what it looks like you have. I haven't been outside today to try to capture one. Maybe tomorrow. I had to charge the battery on the camera then forgot to go take some pictures.

I have a friend in Michigan that lives in an area surrounded by woods and water and she gets so many hummingbirds that they empty her three feeders on a daily basis, sometimes twice in one day. They're feisty little guys, if the feeders are empty, they come to the sliding door and hover there looking in, asking in their little hummingbird way "where's our sugar water, woman?". She has at least a couple dozen that fly around to and from the feeders all day, which she has hanging from her deck roof. So interesting to watch when I get up there for a visit.

It must be very enjoyable to be that close to the little birds and watch them flit around. Thanks for posting your photos, Ben. Very cute. The soil is so hard and dry here that nothing grows. So we really don't have any of the little hummingbirds near where I live.

Aww! So pretty Ben! I don't think I've ever seen a humming bird here in the wild. They're such lovely little birds.

The best way to attract them to your yard is to plant the flowers they love. Of course, location plays a role, too. I live in the city, kinda sorta, my friend is surrounded by woods. There will be more in a woodsy area than in the city. I planted a bunch of plants in a large bed last year to attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, and the hummingbird's favorites in the bed seem to be the agastache -- sunset hyssop, monarda -- bee balm "Raspberry Wine", lobelia cardinalis -- cardinal flower, and I've seen them at phlox paniculata -- garden phlox (hummingbird moths like them too) and surprisingly I saw one feeding from delphinium exaltatum -- tall larkspur. Anything with red or orange tubular flowers will attract them, that's why the blue and purple flowers of the delphinium surprised me. Darn it, I need to go take some pictures.

This is from last week but every time I see it I giggle. One of my friendly bunnies decided to hop into my empty flower pot and take a snooze.

Here's one more. I took 140 pics in about 5 or 10 minutes of watching these things. Some were flying, but they're hard to pick out among the foliage.

This one landed on the rope (lower left) that's holding the feeder, the first time I've seen this. I've sometimes been able to follow them to a tree limb 20 or 60 feet away, and see them come back to the feeder when another hummingbird shows up. But this one was close enough that watching the feeder was a no brainer.

Silver King said:

Looks very comfy. Is it one that is normally wild but has taken a liking to your property for a short spell, or does its family reside there?

Just curious.

Click to expand...

My apartment building is in a U shape with a courtyard in the middle. My porch faces the courtyard and as far as I can tell there are 4-5 bunnies (2 are larger and look like parents of the smaller 3) who live in it. They're well fed and very friendly. I often get them hopping right up to my door begging for food.





That last one I took one night while eating supper. He was just sitting there watching me eat.

Aw! Hummingbirds! I miss them. We used to have a feeder and they'd sort of hang around the deck impatiently while I cleaned it (that was the thing I hated, scrubbing it every two days).

Aw! Bunnies! How sweet is that!

I love this thread.

I liked the bunny in the planter. I'm guessing a lot of people feed those bunnies at your complex, Abby. They seem so used to people.

AbielleRose said:

This is from last week but every time I see it I giggle. One of my friendly bunnies decided to hop into my empty flower pot and take a snooze.

Click to expand...

You should start leaving out a cooking pot - see if he takes a snooze in that.

ahem. that's not funny, jimmy.
*plunk*

*reports posts*

i agree.

jimmy is terrible!

*sends battery off to be recycled*

it's not me, it's jimmy!
he also sent me his hummingbird kebab recipe if anyone wants it.

THERE WILL BE NO EATING OF MY DUNLOP BUNNEH!

*pelts Cray with carrots*