Fall Migration Time!

I looked out a few weeks ago and some hummingbirds were 'sniffing' around in the flowers...so I put out a feeder. Within a few days, there were more...and more...and tons more. Now, they are in full force. I have three feeders out, so does my next door neighbor, and they're plenty busy. I took this shot of a buff-bellied yesterday. Ron was nice enough to put a 'squirrel-proof' bird feeder for me out in the back and that too is plenty busy. So many birds here - Corpus Christi has been named the Birdiest City in America through data collected by annual bird counts. We are in a major flyway, and have both shore and land birds. The hawks are also migrating right now -- people come from all over to see dozens of them in 'kettles' (kinda like a herd, only a hawk travels in kettles...don't ask me who came up with this) traveling over points a bit south of where I live. I've been told you can see as many as 500 in an afternoon, all kinds of hawks, passing through. It's wonderful, beautiful and truly amazing to think of these birds traveling thousands of miles to their come here and escape brutal winters elsewhere. Even more amazing is how people here get into all of this -- hummingbird feeders are hard to find in the stores as the flowering plants were kept to a minimum this year due to severe drought we are suffering. So, the birds are flocking to the feeders, and people are flocking to keep them filled. Awesome.