July 13, 2009

Get out and stay out

Ron Call, a regular reader of Dirt du jour wrote me an amusing email about a hummingbird at the South Coast Botanic Garden. He was watching two babies in a nearby nest develop and fledge. One baby took off at the appropriate time but the other one called Junior stayed put. Mom tolerated this for a few weeks, but hey, she had to move on. She needed a nest for another brood.

So she built a new nest about 10 feet away. Course Junior didn’t like this much, so he flew over and got in the new nest!

What Ron was really writing about though, was Hummer Helper, a slab of super-soft nesting material that mimics spider web and lichen (it’s natural raw cotton) that hummers can use to line their nests.

I thought nesting was all about spring, but what I didn’t know and Ron cleared up is that hummingbirds nest up until fall in Southern California.

whatever
The Star - Woman stabs man, then marries man after he pulls his pants down in front of her friend. Apparently he was showing off a garden injury caused by a hedge trimmer.