fall is coming

The hummers are gone (sniff). They've actually been gone for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't had the heart to bring down the feeders. There weren't as many as last year (the most I counted at one time was 16. Last year it was more like 30). And they bugged out early. Maybe they know something we don't. Apparantly the Farmer's Almanac predicts snow for us on Oct 18th. We'll see. It IS cooling off and all the greenery is turning yellow.

Although the hummers are gone, some of the barn swallows are lingering, as well as the Sandhill Cranes. The kestrels have returned, which also seems early to me, but I don't mind. I enjoy watching them. (I did not take this picture) Speaking of hummingbirds, this is my main feeder. I like it a lot, except do you notice something funny about it?It hangs crooked. I wasn't too impressed by that, so wrote an email (complete with pictures) to Lee Valley. They jumped right on it, insisting on sending a replacement even though I said I didn't want one. It took me all summer to send the faulty one back to them, but they never pestered me for it. I am VERY impressed with their service. So, the new one is great. It hangs straight alright, but there is still a flaw in its design. The top and the bottom join around the middle where the perch is and it is not a good seal. If you fill it too much it leaks like a seive. Kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. If you can only fill it halfway that's a long reach for those little guys to get the nectar. So, I took some video and sent another email to Lee Valley. They acknowledged the problem, but nothing could be done except return it for a refund. I didn't want to do that. I like the overall design, so have opted to make my own modification by glueing the 2 halves together. It'll be a little trickier to clean, but will be much better I think.