Fun Visitors!

We've been getting quite the visitors at our new house:


Mr. Snapping Turtle


Miss Humming Bird


So . . .this was from June maybe? And I had to brighten the picture up so you could actually see, but all those yellow dots are lightning bugs! The one night we looked out and it was like a Christmas light show. They were all up and down our back yard. It was crazy. Must have been mating night.


Lots of finches! We've had other birds too, but these are the prettiest!


Lots of hummingbirds! They are the coolest birds ever! (Ignore the nastiness at the top of the feeder. I finally found a bottle cleaner long enough from Wild Birds Unlimited so it's clean now.)


And we actually got another feeder that they can sit on (so they don't have to flap their little wings like crazy when they eat). It's so neat to see them just sitting. Will have to take some pictures of that too.

Some things we've learned about hummingbirds:
1) they are so pretty
2) they are soooooo tiny
3) they have this cute little chirp they do
4) they will actually get really close to you. they want their food. (we might attempt feeding from our hands one day.)
5) when they fly close to you, their wings flapping is such a loud buzzing noise
6) they are very territorial. if one hummingbird is feeding, another will come and chase it away.
7) don't use red food dye (it doesn't matter. clear attracts fine. and supposedly the red dye might cause brain tumors in them).
8) you don't have to boil your mixture (4 parts water, 1 part sugar)
9) they aren't as expensive to feed as the other birds, but i have to clean their feeders every week (at least). it's pretty nasty.
10) they are afraid of bumble bees (a bumble bee was challenging a humming bird to the feeder. bumble bee won.)

Hope you enjoyed meeting all our visitors too!