Fred Bassett came to my yard on Monday expecting to confirm the identity of my female Rufous. The day did not start out as planned. A half hour before he arrived, half of a tree in my backyard fell on the neighbor's garage. My arborist estimated it to be over 90 feet tall. The chair along the right side of the fence is where Fred would have be sitting 45 minutes later. Of all of the trees my neighborhood has lost in the past few years, this one didn't have any big holes or indicator of a problem. It's scary to think of what could have been. As bad as I feel about what did happen, we're thankful it wasn't worse.

Kids may not be the worst thing to happen to a hummer yard.


Also in the yard for the banding session was a reporter and a photographer from the Tampa Tribune. She expects the article to run in a couple of weeks on Sunday. I had a reporter in the yard a few years ago but her angle was more a fluff piece on "someone in your neighborhood". This one should be more on the hummers and less on me. I expect it to be a good article.

In the end, we came away with banding three Ruby-throateds. We trapped one female Rufous but it was the one we banded in December. Many birds avoided the traps mainly due to the many flowers still blooming but also due to the added number people walking around assessing the damage caused by the tree.


We're expecting mid to low 30's tonight, one of the coldest days of the year and my 9 year old son is camping with the scouts tonight. It's amazing how Murphy works sometimes.

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)

Unbelievable... S**T happens. How fortunate that the tree fell when it did. But it's a shame it fell at all. We're going to be close to 30 tonight. I know that doesn't sound like much to you northerners, but when you have tropicals you can lose a lot.

Joan Garvey - Metairie, LA Zone 9

Steve, your experience is eerily similar to the plane crash in New York; could have been catastrophic but no one was hurt, thank goodness!
In regards to banding, Joan attributed some of the success in banding the birds in my yard to the "dummy traps" I'd made for a few of the feeders. I'm not sure they helped, but I feel sure they didn't hurt. And they're a good predator discourager, not a bad thing to have.

Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

Lizette, I've got ten trainer traps and all of my backyard feeders had one for a few weeks. I never saw her go into one. She fed strictly on flowers until I removed some of the cages. Birds who went into those cages would not go into the traps on Monday. I thihnk there was just too much additional "activity" for them.

Both Rufous are accounted for this morning and I've seen or heard most of the other regulars. The cutting started on Thursday, and Friday was the first full day so I was concerned with what birds would still be here today. Today will likely be another full day of saws and grinding. We're going to leave a 20 foot trunk that will be removed at a later date (non-emergency) along with major pruning of our last tree standing. I'm not sure if we'll wait for the hummingbird season to end or if we'll just be looking to get it over with. Trimming the last tree will likely cause some major damage to flowerbeds.

Some areas nearby have hit 32 degrees this morning. I'm currently at 34.

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)

Steve, there is an old and not so sturdy Water Oak in my yard and I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it must go. I may cut the trunk down to about 30 feet and allow the remains to be a trellis for the big orange Trumpet Creeper. Last June, the top 15 feet were broken off in a hail storm and the errant section never showed up in the surrounding yards. It must have been carried a couple of blocks!

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9