Thursday, September 18, 2008

Where Do They Go?

We have a plethora of Hummingbirds of which I, indeed, enjoy. This picture, below, was taken the day after the hurricane.
They are such little birds, I began to wonder where do these guys go during such strong wind. I pondered this aloud to my dear other half and he said that they probably get on a branch opposite the side of where the wind is coming from~ makes sense, they probably do... but I cannot imagine they can always do that with wind direction changing so quickly.
I said that they must have super strength in their foot grasp to be able to hold on to a branch during high wind... you know, like how an ant has super strength and can lift 10Xs that of a man... well, I wonder what the grip ratio difference would be between humans and hummers. My other half said that I might be able to get a research grant somewhere and do a study on the subject... he often is facetious like that~ probably a way to deal with my many 'wonderings'.



One other note on these hummers... as we didn't have electric for 3 days after the hurricane, we slept with our windows open. The first night after the storm was a doozy. We were all tired since the night before was when the storm hit. Hence, no sleep. Then, this first night after the storm was HOT and humid.... suffice to say, very little sleep. And when I was finally asleep... early the next morning AT THE CRACK of dawn, I am awakened by the furious little squeaks & twitters of hummers vying for their territory on the feeder that is hanging right outside our bedroom window.
I am not a cursing person.. but lack of sleep had me muttering in my pillow, 'damn hummingbirds!'

1 comment:

Texas Travelers said...

Nice post and great photos. We haven't had many "hummers" this year at our place. We cleaned up the thistle feeders today in anticipation of the return of the goldfinches.

Thanks for the visit,
Troy and Martha