Peace in the Pecking Order

         

 

          Each summer I fill five hummingbird feeders every day.  I have plenty of flowers that the birds feed on, but I like to keep feeders close to the house so I can watch the activity.  For years I spread the feeders out, trying to keep them separated so if a bully male kept a female off a feeder she could simply go around the corner to another feeder.  Still, the bullies seemed to stake out a territory and fight off anyone who came close. 

          Recently I noticed a feeder that I had placed under a birch tree was never used by the hummingbirds.  It remained full while the other feeders were depleted daily.  I thought perhaps the location was an issue.  I had three feeders near the back door where shrubs offered better protection, and another toward the other end of the screened porch.  So even though I had been keeping the feeders separated from one another, I cleaned the unused one, filled it with fresh sugar water, and brought it closer to the other feeders.  To make room for it, I moved the others even closer together.  Now, for the first time, four of the five feeders are only a few feet apart.  Then a strange thing happened.

          Suddenly the hummingbirds stopped fighting over possession of a feeder and became more social and cooperative.  Now three or four birds can sit and drink at a single feeder, a few feet away from another feeder filled with birds.   With the feeders  close together, and close to the house and shrubs for protection,  it looks like almost everyone is getting along and the battles have dramatically decreased, although not disappeared completely.  After all, some males just can’t help being belligerent.

          I thought keeping the feeders apart was a good way to feed the hummingbirds and deal with the bullies, but moving  them closer has had a profound effect.  Now birds are sharing feeders and getting along.  This may not work for everyone but it sure worked for me.  For the first time, there is relative peace among the thirsty hummingbird population at my house.   

A Common Newt

The terrestrial juvenile or eft stage of Notophthalmus viridescens

 If these eastern red-spotted newts are so common, it seems like we would see them more frequently.  Perhaps one reason we don't is because they live an elusive  life that involves extreme transformations --  changing color and appearance with each life cycle.  Larvae and adults rely on gills to obtain oxygen from the water, while terrestrial juveniles have lungs.  Members of the salamander family, they begin life in the water, leave for a few years to live on land, and then return to live in water. 

In the early spring, females lay eggs in a pond or other quiet body of water.  Weeks later small, brownish larvae hatch and spend the summer in the water.  In late summer they grow into orange efts, or juveniles, like the one pictured above, and leave the water to spend up to three years on land in woodland habitats.   Once they reach maturity, they return to the water to breed, and then spend the rest of their adult lives living in the water. Aquatic adults can reach five inches in length and are greenish brown but retain their juvenile spots. They can live for more than 10 years. 

The bright orange of the juvenile stage is a warning color to predators.  If attacked, their skin can secrete a toxic substance to discourage most predators from eating then.  Efts often move around at night but can be seen in the daytime when the ground is moist.  Efts eat worms and insects that can be found in leaf litter.