April 2nd was the sighting of the first hummingbird of the spring. I had the sprinkler on the yard lilies and iris when the distinctive hum made me look up to the top of the spray. He was taking a nice showers and enjoying it like play. I hurried to get the feeder filled with fresh nectar but didn't see him again until the next afternoon when I noticed he was back and enjoying the feeder. By the 4th, there were at least two and now there are probably a dozen. If we don't get more feeders soon, they will start fighting over them and the weaker will move on. I do so enjoy having lots but if not watched, the squirrels will chew through the plastic feeders and ruin them.

So, I've spent over a week now with the camera ready to run out and catch the hummers at the feeder but they shy away. My schedule has kept me so busy that I cannot afford the hour or so it would take to get them to come up to me. I've done it before and it's not hard. They are curious to begin with and I kept thinking that I would have some good shots before I put down these notes.

From my window now I can see very little blue sky. The trees are still a million shades of green with each leaf flying with the wind. The branches move the groups of leaves in sections as the gusts lift and bounce them around.

I read where Briklyn noted the excess blue jays and thought they were keeping the other birds away. I have a fondness for the noisy featherheads. Something to do with the vivid blues and black in their coloring. I have yet to get a really good picture of one close up. The goldfinches have long moved on now but the jays are indeed keeping away a lot of other birds. The red-winged black bird was only seen once about a month ago.

On April 5th we were about a mile from here when we looked to see the Snowy Egrets all over a rancher's water pond. Nope, we didn't have the camera with us. I've been watching for them to be all over the neighbor's pasture.