Hummingbirds, critters and flowers.....

Gosh, I just cannot express how much we enjoy the hummers. They are so entertaining and amazing. Up, down, sideways and backwards...they can go in all directions! Just amazing. I thought I would share a few hummer photos.

They just love to feed at sundown. Notice the sunset glow in the water. All day these guys body check and compete with each other for dominance of the feeder, and then magically at sunset they eat, eat, eat to prepare for the night. Most competition disappears and everybody makes nice-nice.

This beautiful little goldfinch is having dinner. It is enjoying fresh sunflower salad. It has collected dinner and deposited on the back of the sunflower to use the sunflower as a dish. I wasn't sure I believed what I was seeing, but I watched longer, and over several days and it is true. They gather food and set in on the flower back before eating it.  I was also surprised to see it eating yellow petals from the flower and other flower matter inside the center of the flower. Intially they were not eating seeds. Now they are eating seeds because the flower carcass has aged and the seeds have formed and dried out. 

This is another resident our our spread. I appreciate his efforts in keeping the flowers pretty and clean. Hopefully he fills himself to the gills with the bugs that are cozying up to my flowers. He is nested in a mum plant. He is quite large and was completely undistrubed by my camera which was about four inches from his body

The dahlia below finally bloomed after several years in the garden. I has been moved to several different locations over that time, and this is the first time it has bloomed. Not what I thought I bought, very disappointing! I think it has seen its last planting in my garden.