I guess we'll stay

I should be continuing the loading of my formidable kitchen. Not formidable in that it's a state-of-the-art kitchen or that I have tons of gourmet (pronounced goor-met around these parts) accessories. Formidable in that I had eight (8) china barrels full of kitchen crap, and also a huge array of cabinets in which to stuff it all. So far, I believe I've unloaded three of the barrels. Hey, the coffee-making materials are all working, and the toaster is plugged in - what else is there to do? Oh yeah, mugs.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a little thing about the rufous hummingbird. At druid labs, we're all about bird-watching, as part of our no-money-fun practice. But no more ruby throats, as back at druid labs midwest and druid labs east. Here, there are Anna's hummingbirds and rufous hummingbirds. Last evening, as we were doing laundry (ah! To sleep in our own bed, in crispy clean sheets!), hobbitt noticed, right outside the laundry window, a hummingbird that had perched in the conifer tree, at eye level.

I thought that was kind of low, but all I know about hummingbirds is related to the ruby throats from the eastern US. Their nests tend to be high (20 feet or so) in the trees. Eh. Maybe it was just perched. Then this morning, hobbitt noticed the bird hovering outside the dining room window. He said it looked brown to him, and lamented that our bird books are packed away somewhere. I pointed out to him that he had an internet connection up and running...

Rufous hummingbirds perch low in conifers in the spring, to stay alee of weather extremes. In summer, they build their nests high in the crowns of deciduous trees, to take advantage of the evaporative, transpiration (yeah, it's redundant, get over it) cooling effect of the leaves.

Looks like we got ourselves a rufous nest right outside our laundry window. Either that, or it's hobbitt's way of making me do housework.