Anna's hummingbird nest

If you’re thinking about pruning a tree at this time of year in southern California (and a lot of other warm locations), please look closely for bird activity first. It’d be really easy to send this family of Anna’s hummingbirds tumbling to the ground and I suspect most of us can agree that’d be incredibly sad.

Here’s a female Anna’s hummingbird near her nest site in our largest tree, a Peruvian pepper that came with the house. She built it with twigs, spider webs and bits of lichen from our fence which add a bit of much-needed camouflage.

She’s foraging in bladderpod I planted.

Why is a Cooper’s hawk a hummingbird's best friend?: https://www.science.org/content/article/why-hawk-hummingbird-s-best-friend

Chaparral denizen

We may be off to a cold start in San Diego, but it's spring as far as I'm concerned. Patience was required to catch this shot of an Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) working a grove of mission manzanitas (Xylococcus bicolor) today. Look at how tight that range map is for the mission manzanita, the only member of its genus (the fancy word for that is "monotypic").

Hummingbird flight

The Cedros Island bush snapdragon (Gambelia juncea) being worked by this Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) in our backyard is native to nearby Baja, California, Mexico. Hummingbird flight is truly remarkable and you can read about it here if you’re interested.

Can't live on nectar alone

If you observe Anna’s hummingbirds for awhile, you'll see them collecting spider webs and lichens for their nests, picking insects off of plants and even catching them midair with all of the maneuvers you'd expect from birds capable of flying backwards. They're the only ones who can do that without help from wind. I recently paused along Peñasquitos Creek one evening to watch this male adding some protein to his diet.

Nesting out back in the big Peruvian peppertree is another Anna's. It's the one plant on the slope I didn't replace with a local native. All of my plantings are doing great with many sages and bladderpod already in flower to nourish the hummingbirds and others. I hope she and her young luck out with the invasive Argentine ants. A nesting attempt on our property line last year ended with the hatchlings being swarmed shortly after the eggs hatched. The California Argentine ant supercolony thrives on our addiction to incessant irrigation.

Bromeliad visitor

The flower features of this Tillandsia ionantha’s blossoms were a giveaway to me that one or more of the resident hummingbirds would visit it if I waited and watched. This male Anna’s (Calypte anna) didn’t disappoint.

Argentine ants strike again

Saddened but not surprised is how I'd describe myself this morning after finding the Anna's hummingbird nest I'd been watching overrun by Argentine ants.  I'd been hoping for the best and mentally preparing myself for the worst as is advisable when observing nature closely.  She was still on her nest yesterday evening with no peeping coming from it.  There was clearly a horror story unfolding near the house sometime between then and getting up to make coffee.  They've been known to drive the parent off of the nest if they discover it in order to attack and feed on the baby birds.  They also farm honeydew-producing sucking insects like scale, mealybugs and aphids that have decimated many of my established native plants.  I'm hoping to save the rest by employing knowledgeable nurseryman Greg Rubin's approach to combating this invasive species; it's linked to in this informative blog post by the California Chaparral Institute.  I also found this article from the University of California Riverside Center for Invasive Species Research helpful in gaining a better understanding what we're up against. 

The carbon cycle

An Anna's hummingbird has built a lovely nest of spider silk, lichens and other detritus in our garden.   I was comforted by the brightness of her eyes and the knowledge that she's keeping two, minuscule eggs warm as I buried a pet goldfish of seven years who succumbed to his tumor today. He may as well nourish the grapefruit tree.