Date: 08/04/2023

Number: 20

Twenty is a conservative estimate. My husband says we have at least 2 dozen. I tend to agree with him. We have our 3 summer resident adult males, many summer resident adult females, and lots and lots of juveniles zipping and zooming around everywhere.

Our 3 resident adult males have about had it with the juveniles. Quite interestingly, I've been observing 2 of our adult males resting and hanging out within a few feet of one another perched on a large dead branch which overlooks a large portion of our backyard and our patio. In the spring and early summer, you would never see 2 adult males exhibiting such behavior. I think now that they know they are done mating, they are just biding their time until they head south. And they seem to allow one juvenile (a male, I believe) to "guard" the patio below them. They also are not working to maintain control, as I have seen both of them being chased off of feeders by juveniles, which again, would never happen earlier in the season.

We had a glorious cool day of rain yesterday, which proved to be a wonderful reprieve from the intense dry summer we've been having here. All the birds and critters, hummingbirds included, were very happy with this respite and were observed bathing and preening on tops of trees and shrubs.

This photo is of one of our little juvenile cuties, sitting at the end of a branch of one of the cherry trees in our front yard, surveying all the activity around. Again, we have our friend Paul Nielson to thank for the photo. We're always so happy to see him show up with his camera.

Kernersville, NC

Latitude: 36.1 Longitude: -80.1

Observed by: Sophie
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.