'Nother rarity in these parts...

For the last couple of weeks, around 8 a.m....our back yard has been nothing but a multitude of hummers!!! One morning when I was sitting out on the patio on my favorite bird watching bench, I counted...37 ruby-throats at 5 feeders!! I tried to get a photo of the whole shebang, but they were moving around and protecting their certain feeders, vying for a certain spot to make use of their tongues... and flying higher as a couple went, up, up, and away...I gave up. You just have to trust me on the count. And I've been having to refill EACH feeder with sugar-water EACH day. Not only are they having a feeding frenzy on their way south for the season, they have to share with another certain creature...wasps!! Now, I didn't know it was there at the feeder when I was out there with the camera, but when I got busy resizing the images from the camera to share with y'all...it was nice and pretty. The birds didn't seem to mind!! So, the one image in striped frame is the one with the intruder:

The one with the wasp!

Then, one day when Bud and I went to a favorite birding spot here within the city, Blucher Park, which was donated to the city in the late 1800s to keep as a bird sanctuary, we both armed with binoculars and I with my camera in hopes of spotting some migrants. There is a lot of late flowering bushes of a flame-red color that attracts the nectar feeding birds. Anyway, I was looking up, cranking my neck toward the sky around a huge mulberry tree to find a woodpecker I had heard. We were there about an hour already and found only the most common of birds, mockingbirds, doves, sparrows and such. I couldn't find the woodpecker so began walking toward the creek and bridge when all of a sudden I spied a different hummingbird species. I knew right away it was a rare sighting for my area [Nueces County] of Texas. The copper/rufous color of the tail feathers gave it away at first. I lifted my binoculars to see if I was correct in my identifying it. Yep...it not only had the rusty tail feathers, but as it flitted from one Turk's Cap bush [shown above in photo] to another, I was able to see the red beak!! That beak was a give-away. I tried over an over to follow it's flight pattern, with camera readied....to no avail. It just moved way too quickly to get a good opportunity to capture it in photo!! I told Bud "I just gotta stay here long enough to get at least one clear photo of this hummer!!" We were both getting bit by the horde of mosquitoes that were very hungry for our blood...hatching from the recent rains. I continued to try, still no luck. I walked over to the bridge and just watched. If all else fails I could at least mark it off my Texas Bird Chart as 'spotted' but not photographed. I had downloaded and printed off seven charts from a Texas Nature Site for my county that has birds recorded here. This particular hummingbird had "R" across the entire 12 months of the year. Meaning RARE. I like rare...even my Texas grilled steaks must be rare. But, that's beside the point. :o) After another hour of feeding the mosquitoes and Bud becoming a bit miserable because of them, we were just ready to give up on getting a photo. As we started heading back to the car to leave the park for the day...my spotter, Bud...stopped in his tracks, and held up his hand for me to stop. He then pointed off toward the tree by the creek. There, sitting pretty, preening, was the hummer!!! I began to click at the shutter button ---

It is in the middle of the photo...

enlarge to find it perched

RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD & BUFF BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD

photos taken: back yard [ruby throat] & Blucher Park - Corpus Christi, Texas [buff-bellied]

Habitat Range: Ruby Throat Hummingbird - Buff-Bellied Hummingbird

TRIVIA:

from the Hummingbird book, it states that  "Texas, with 19 species of hummingbirds, has more than any other state in the Union."