Oh, yeah — the Papa rubythroated hummer came to feed at least 3 times while I was watching. Now that they’re visiting my yard regularly, I may have to get another feeder and hang it closer to the house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Common_whitetail.jpg

I don’t know how “common” it is, but it was quite beautiful! Of course, it didn’t light anywhere long enough for me to snap a picture.

And the neighborhood hummingbirds are now frequent visitors to my backyard, since they discovered my new feeder. Naturally, THEY don’t stick around to pose for pix either! But they’re wonderful to watch.

I’m in Steilacoom, Washington — about 25 miles northeast of Olympia. We are situated right on the Puget Sound.

In addition to failing to mention what part of the US I’m in, I also failed to mention my favorite birds that frequent the area — woodpeckers. They are absolutely beautiful and the calls they make to each other are so unique. Having moved up here 3 years ago from Southern California (seagulls, sparrows, pigeons and crows, primarilly), I am so enjoying the multitude of different birds!

I pretend this Staghorn Sumac is my “palm tree” in the yard…birds like to perch on it, before they come into the yard. The baby Cardinal should by late fall have the beak color of an adult. If you have babies, you know how noisy they are…

I have a mystery bird that has shown up twice in my yard in the past week. About the size of a crow, all brown with a white band running around his neck and down both shoulders, he caught my attention by how loud his landing was on the fence and how quiet all the other birds in the area had become. I went into the house to get my binoculars and when I came back outside, it was sitting in the middle of an overgrown apple tree in the yard next door, very close to several bird houses. I have been having an abundance of finches, robins, jays and mourning doves this year. Anyway, I couldn’t get a good look at the bird so I moved a little closer with the binoculars, but he flew and landed on top of a telephone pole at the street. As I was watching him, I was amazed at how he was being “peppered” by a group of birds — they were divebombing at him — and eventually he flew off, with the divebombers continuing the chase. I was wondering if it might be a fledge pelegrine — there was a nest in Olympia about 25 miles from here. I know, very vague, but Kate you are brilliant — so, any clues as to what it could be???

Oh, as an aside, my husband went out to get the paper around 5:45 a.m. last week and saw a bald eagle sitting in the middle of our street about 2 houses down, munching on some opposum that had been “roadkilled” during the nite. He took some pictures of the eagle — they are not the greatest pixs, but I would be more than happy to upload and share (if I knew how!!!). Hubby said the telephone wires were full of crows sitting and waiting for the eagle to finish up. Eagles in this area are not common, so it was a treat!