Rubby-throated Hummingbirds in Full Migration

The last few days have been a war zone around the hummingbird feeders. We have hit a peak migration of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. This pretty well ends the year with any Black-chinned Hummingbird still coming to the feeders. Most of the male birds left much earlier and now with all the Ruby-throats massing around the feeders, the Black-chinned left have moved out. Even if one was here, it would be practically impossible to pick it out as they are all moving so fast and attacking each other, that no single bird can sit at a feeder very long.

Occasionally they appear to reach a truce and all perch together feeding frantically before resuming the battle. A single large feeder with two cups of sugar water will last about one day. In a few days most will be gone and feeding all along the coastal communities.

MORE RAIN AND SNAKE

I went to bed around midnight watching a far off line of storm with significant lightening. I awoke at 3:30 to thunder and the sound of rain on our metal roof. Woke again at 6:30 to more rain and finally got out of bed to see the rains starting to stop. As the yard was still holding a good amount of visible water, I knew we had had a heavy rain. Since the rains were almost over, I walked up to the rain water tanks where the rain gauge is located. 3.70 inches of additional rain overnight. Two day total is over 6.5 inches.

Decided to take a walk around the ranch later in the day and scared up 4 large Axis Deer and on the return found this beautiful Western Coachwhip which gave me time for one picture before it did its speedy coachwhip exit.

RAINS AND SKUNK

Well we are finally getting some much needed rain. The rain gauge showed we had 2.88 inches of rain from last night and early this morning. While the rains were stating to let up, I noticed this small black and white animal far off in the front area moving under a cedar tree. Soon it appeared and I could tell it was a Striped Skunk: Family Mustelidae : Mephitis mephitis. It was soaked and kept shaking its body to remove the water. I called Sherry and she was able to get a short view of it before it disappeared in the brush. I quickly went out and closed the garage doors to ensure we didn't have an unwelcome visitor seeking some dry ground.

Lesser Goldfinch

This has been a great year for Lesser Goldfinch. It appears they have raised at least two families and maybe three. Yesterday while I was putting out wildflower seeds, I found one very young chick that was still trying to fly and mostly jumping from one brush to another in short flights.

The thistle feeder has been overrun with Goldfinch for weeks and they manage to empty it almost daily.

Fire Protection Mowing

Spent another 3 hours mowing around the ranch house to clean the land of tall grass and dried wildflowers. Any fire on the ranch with all the dead vegetation could be really serious for any structure too close to the heat or flames.

Unfortunately I also have a barn, pump house, and two rain water collection tanks that also need a cleared area around each The worst part is that everything is so dry, you create large dust clouds that follow you around in the stagnate air.