HUMMINGBIRD BANDING AND MORE...

On Tuesday, Kent and Lesley came from Casa Grande to spend a couple of days with us. One of the reasons for their trip was to go to Madera Canyon to the Cuparosa B & B to watch the Hummingbird banding. An organization called The Hummingbird Monitoring Network bands Hummers from April until October and they welcome people to come and watch. Below Kent and Lesley are anticipating the first Hummer in the net.

These volunteers capture the Hummingbird as he or she comes to drink at the feeder.

Then they place him/her in this mesh bag and take it to a trained (not just anyone can do this)person for

identifying, weighing, measuring, etc. This lady takes these delicate creatures and handles them with so much care. She has a tiny Hummer in her hand. There is another person that records all the information. Below is a Hummer being weighted on a tiny scale which weighs in grams.

After it had been given a drink of nectar, they placed it in Lesley's hand for release. However, it took off so fast all I got was a picture of Lesley with her hand out!

Wednesday evening we went to a party at the rec center to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Below are just a few pictures of the people celebrating.

The weather was wonderful - about 85 to 90 degrees

and the view was great. Below is Elephant Head which is looking east from our subdivision.

And looking towards the Santa Rita mountains.

And a good time was had by all.

This morning when we got up the cactus out front had bloomed again. Not as many blooms as before, but they were still beautiful - so poor Boomer was dragged outside again to pose.

What a trooper he has been

I do think this is the last of these flowers for this year.