Life is about to get more interesting. Kellie has gone to Florida for a week, and we are cat-sitting. I've been wondering how Moe would react to the hummingbird as she builds her nest on our clothesline. She put in her construction time early this morning and has not been around since Moe arrived at 9 a.m. Kellie said that Moe has lost interest in hummingbirds anyway; he's much more interested in lizards - of all sizes. He wasn't here long before he caught this Monkey-la-la. He will have a good time this week because we have lots of lizards of various sizes in our trees, flowerbeds, gutters, not to mention the geckos inside the house. He has pretty much decimated the lizard population up the hill. I did scold him and chase him around the deck, trying to get him to drop the lizard, and eventually, he did. The lizard shot off into the heliconias with Moe in hot pursuit.
The fruitless effort left him exhausted, calling for a catnap on the porch swing (my favorite spot, too). He even had it swinging!
I've been doing more reading on hummers. They typically spend about 4 hours per day building their nests which can take up to a week to complete. Today she added a nice soft, downy layer. The guy wire that I mentioned yesterday is just what it looks like, spider webs. That's what she was doing in the purple plants, collecting spider webs. She also uses these as a type of glue to hold the nest together. She collects it by wrapping it around her body and then uses her long beak and her body to press it into the nest. The guy wires are proving pretty strong so far, keeping the nest from swaying too much in the wind. We'll soon see how she reacts to Moe.
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