I saw my very first hummingbird! I almost made it to 44 years old without having ever seen a hummingbird, but I can't say that any more!
All up and down the pole that held the hummingbird feeder, thousands of tiny "crazy ants" streamed. I believe that's what they are. Some of them had striped abdomens and some did not. While we initially thought that this distinguished sex or something along those lines,
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I believe that I found out that when the ant has eaten, its abdomen expands and show the structure of the exoskeleton, making it seem that it is striped.
Then, this really cool bumblebee moth joined us on the patio. Very cool thing!
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I'd never seen one of them before, either.
Then, amongst all the other birds that were visiting his bird feeder - cardinals by the score, house finches, black-capped chickadees, mourning doves and nuthatches - a goldfinch perched on the feeder for a while!
And the whole time we were there, the resident red-tailed hawk swooped and dove over the trees, shrieking his high-pitched call. It was surrealistic. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine that you were in some canyon wilderness with the cry of the hawk sounding over your head.
Fun stuff!
I saw those hummingbird moths (rather than bumblebee, we've found them called hummingbird around here, which I really liked) for the first time last year in my garden hovering around the lilac bushes... Aren't they just the coolest little things? After years of being a bird watcher, these bugs really intrigued me! Congratulations on seeing your first hummer!