Reminder: I'm now posting mostly at facebook.com/bhhummingbird. The Sanctuary is closed to the public.
The Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary
A blog that provides up-to-date information about the world's leading (according to Google) hummingbird sanctuary, on high bluffs overlooking Long Island Sound, Riverhead, New York. The sanctuary is private and not open to the general public. Paul's Email: paul.adams%stonybrook.edu. We sometimes livestream from the sanctuary, at youtube.com/channel/UCvTj9WdD0zItyBLI6m-U9Og/live
BASICS
This is a blog about my summer life at the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary, at my winter garden, Calypso, in the Bahamas, and aspects of life in general.
This private sanctuary is now permanently closed to the general public, as a result of a lawsuit brought by a neighbor. Only my friends and personal guests may visit (paul.adams%stonybrook.edu).
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
Hummers and Century Plant
Century plants (Agave americana) are abundant on Eleuthera and when they flower (once in their lifetime, and usually after 30 not 100 years) they attract hummingbirds. The flower stalk is about 30 feet high and the plant dies as it flowers. Here's one along the oceanfront
Here's a general view of the flower
and here are 2 clips of hummers feeding at it:
A second Century Plant is blooming in the back garden at Calypso, and a juvenile male Woodstar hummingbird is guarding it:
In the final clip, this young male attacks a hummer that starts feeding on "his" flowers:
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Great Lizard Cuckoo eats Cassie's Chick
Sad news. This morning at 7.30 the chick was on the edge of the nest and I filmed the mother feeding him.
Then I filmed the chick:
10 minutes later I returned to the nest, but it was wrecked, the chick was gone, and a Great Lizard Cuckoo was in the tree a few feet away, still swallowing something.
Then I filmed the chick:
10 minutes later I returned to the nest, but it was wrecked, the chick was gone, and a Great Lizard Cuckoo was in the tree a few feet away, still swallowing something.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Perching before feeding
When Cassie, the Bahama Woodstar mother hummingbird whose nest I'm monitoring, arrives to feed her young, she usually perches nearby before flying to the nest itself, on the look-out for potential predators. Usually she chooses a spot I cannot easily film, but today I could:-
When she took off she flew directly to the nest and started feeding the babies:
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Eggs Hatched!
I'm calling the female Bahama Woodstar hummingbird that's nesting in a casuarina tree "Cassie". Her eggs have finally hatched and she's busy feeding the tiny babies (probably 2 of them).
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Hummers in the Bahamas
Since Christmas I've been at our winter place "Calypso" on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, and have rather neglected this blog. I see hummingbirds here every day - the local variety known as the Bahama Woodstar, which is even smaller than the ruby-throat, though rather similar in appearance and behavior. However, the male's throat is purple rather than red:
Yesterday, march 2, I spotted an active nest, about 12 feet off the ground in a casuarina tree:
The mother seems to be incubating eggs. Here are more videos, shot today march 3:
Monday, November 19, 2018
summer hummer close-up; climbing roses
It froze at the sanctuary and a number of flowers are dead, but some are still hanging on, though I think the predicted Thanksgiving deep-freeze will finish them off. I'm planting more antique climbing roses at the base of the little cherry-trees, after having grown them on from tiny plants in pots throughout the summer on the deck, away from the depredations of the numerous deer. Now they are big enough to train up the tree-trunks. Then I wrap them up in chicken wire cages. I now have at least 20 climbing up cherry-trees, and in mid-june (and only then) they put on quite a show. Here's another clip of a hummer feeding at Black-and-Blue, this time closer-up (or is it close-upper?).
Friday, November 9, 2018
Late, and very late.
I thought this was my last hummer of the season (filmed oct 12)
But then, after a long gap, this ruby-throat showed up on nov 4:
But then, after a long gap, this ruby-throat showed up on nov 4:
I've not see it since but then I've not been much at the sanctuary recently.
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