Aren't you having fun with your outdoor cams!!

I watch those airborne hummingbird dances everyday, but never capture them on film. I love the buzzing and swooping and the lighting-fast turns. Never certain about the motivation — Aggression? Flirting? Playing?

And the clueless dove strolling by 😆

Great pics!!! I have that stuff going on in my yard too but don't even pretend that I would get any good pics with my cheap phone. Seeing 3 and 4 at a time zipping around.

I wish My Salvias looked like that! So pretty! For the past couple months, they're just sticks with a few leaves, even before it went into 100's and stopped raining. Not enjoying the heat at all, and not a reliable hummer plant for here.

Tropical milkweed, porterweed, Lantana, 4'o'clocks, and Coleus are blooming like crazy and getting the attention from the hummers - and SOOOO many butterflies.

I think it also helps that a new neighbor 2 doors down has been gardening. If it ever cools off, I'll wander over there and see what's going on. Maybe they need some more plants if they're the type to also have potted plants inside.

Has anyone observed a hummer interacting in any way with another kind of bird? I'm pretty clueless about interpreting what birds are doing, but haven't had a moment where I thought I was observing anything like that.

No, I haven't. But I don't see other bird species interacting either, except to chase each other away from the feeders. Sometimes they share space, but I'd describe that more as parallel feeding than interaction.

Yes, mourning doves are stupid and that one was probably oblivious to the chase going on over its head. The one black and white cat that comes around caught one last week or so, and I'm pretty sure it was a young one that was staying in the corner a few feet from me even as I cleaned the bird bath out one day. Not happy with that cat after watching it walk off with the bird still flapping to get away, but I haven't seen it around since then.

The hummingbirds here just seem to avoid other birds. Sometimes if too many sparrows come to the bird bath, they'll fly off... other times they could care less and just ignore the other birds. But I've seen hummers chasing bees around quite often. Not sure if it's a "no sharing" thing or what, but it's always funny to watch.

Fascinating! I haven't seen any hummers having interactions with bees, but I guess I could say I've observed hummers ignoring butterflies.

Our hummers have chased the wrens and finches.

My hummers are all ruby throat and males. The fighting is serious and territorial. So I have out 4 feeders around the yard and they still fight. When the gals get here the males will even pick on them, but then the males will leave and the tired females will share

... I'm struggling to not make a comparative comment

I put out a second feeder a few years ago only to discover a second male claimed it for himself. So that defeated the purpose.

Chuckl, It just means there aren't nearly enough feeders spread out around the porches...I have approximately 10 of them, but the hummers need the moisture here, they wait more for the sprinklers than they are for the feeders...had a dozen woodpeckers show up today for the sprinkler...they heard me start it up to water that pine, flew in and clung to the pine while it passed over them, some of them were barely old enough to fly...I have gold finches, bluebirds, cardinals, crows and a few I don't recognize after that sprinkler water...the weeks of 109* no rain is endangering everything down here. I cleaned out that old tub one of my rootbeer plants sit in, added 3" clean water to the bottom of that pot, the birds are climbing in and out for water (so is the squirrel). Plants are requiring twice a day water but wilting anyway. I even have aloe vera sitting in a tray with water in the bottom and it is grateful. All these are in shade.

Sounds unbearable. I witnessed some of our birds "panting" when our heat didn't let up for seems like forever, but it was nowhere near as hellish as your weather sounds. So sad!

Birds here were panting constantly last week when the temps hit 100° for 4 days. I was grateful I didn't have to leave the house... just reach out the windows to refill the feeders, drippers did the rest.

Thanks Kittriana and others for thinking of birds and animals in these incredible temperatures. It warms my heart to know that you are providing water for them to drink and cool in. Bless you.

I wish I could find a sprinkler I could use without any water getting on the mowed areas. All of my cultivated areas are thin strips and I haven't seen any sprinklers that sprinkle in a line. I'll let the good plants die before I put water on the silly "grass."

I have one that you can narrow or widen on each side of the sprinkler. It can go pretty "thin." It also has a thing on the side to widen or shorten how far it goes back and forth.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Melno...

Thank you for the effort! I think that's one of the ones I tried. If I turn on a low enough flow so the spray doesn't go too far, it's not enough pressure to make it turn, so I needed to move it after about 20 mins. Not much different than laying the hose in various spots with the hand nozzle on shower setting.

That's odd. I don't turn mine too high and it still moves. I wonder what your water psi is. I think ours is 80. They had to lower it because it was too high.

Great water pressure, but the garden spots are only a few feet wide. It finally rained for a few mins today. If it rains again within the next week, things should be OK. Maybe the hurricane will sling a little more water over here, but I hope it doesn't tear stuff up. There are very few people where the forecasted track shows it going ashore. I hope they have battened down their hatches and gone to higher ground if they are near the coast or in a less sturdy structure.

We're supposed to get anywhere from 3-6" tomorrow. 😬

That's a good soaking!