The Return of the hummingbirds

So far, the bees have not returned to our hummingbird feeder. Nevertheless, Barb has been looking for the HummZinger feeder which claims that it prevents insects and bees from getting in. I looked in Windsor, Ont. when I was there, but no luck; no luch in Mexico either. She looked on Ebay and the company website, but they do not ship to Mexico and wanted over $100 shipping to send to Canada! However, Barb started calling pet stores in Halifax and lo, the store in the Dunbrack Mall, near the Sobey’s, have them for a cost of $26! Barb bought one on her credit card and hopes that her friends, Dawn and Gordon, who are coming to visit us in the middle of September, will bring it down with them. Unlike other feeders, this one is flat, like a flying saucer; it doesn’t have nearly the capacity of the one we have, but that is probably good. After about 3 days, the syrup starts to ferment and the hummingbirds can’t consume more than a fraction of the syrup in that time. After about 3 days, we had been letting the bats finish each batch off.

The other purchase Barb has been anxious about was a composter, very difficult to get in Mexico. Some had been advocating a hole in the ground with a little fence around. I think that in the dry season especially, the stuff would dry out and not decompose very well. However, we did locate a woman who has been importing them from Germany and has now arranged for some to be manufactured here. She lives way on the other side of Guadalajara, past the Costco store and mall that we go to. Barb had been calling and emailing her to set up an appointment to get one for over a week. Finally, she called back yesterday saying that she had been away. We are planning to go Wednesday. The State of Jalisco, where we are, is saying that all municiapalities must implement a 3 stream program for waste similar to that in Nova Scotia by September. I’ll talk about that in my next post.

This rainy season is quite mild. We had not had any rain for about 3-4 days. About 3 a.m., there was some rain; however, at 7:30 there was a thunderstorm and heavy rain for perhaps half an hour. Then, it reduced to a steady rain until about 10 a.m. After that, it cleared up and became sunny before noon.