Feathering, Sort of, One's Nest

Ed went over to our neighbor's pond the other day to investigate the possibility of tadpoles for another friend's frog-less pond.  He didn't find any tadpoles or even frog egg masses, although there were frogs in residence.  What he did find was hummingbirds swishing to and fro to gather cattail fluff for their nests.  And so, he cut a few cattails and brought them home to hang about 10 feet away from our hummingbird feeder.

The feeder is a very busy place at this time of year, in part because our neighbors have been much away and thus not able to supply their share of sugar syrup: we are feeding an entire street's worth of hummingbirds, it sometimes seems.  And now, we are also supplying homemaking supplies.  They come if not as often to the cattails as to the feeder, but yet, very frequently.  However, they do not like to have their photos taken during this activity.  Although they come and go freely if we are just standing around, they have become very standoffish if Ed goes out and tries to take their photos while they are gathering cattail fluff.

However, if looking at rather than photographing birds/hummingbirds is your main interest, I strongly recommend a few cattails as an addition to your feeder for viewing interest.