By RAY POPE

Hummers, Hummers, and even more Hummers have taken over the neighborhood, almost makes one want to bob and weave across the yard looking for the safety of the front door. Dotty Kim called Saturday to report that all her feeders are overflowing with birds. As of last count Dotty said she has at least 30 there at her home. I told her when she gets tired to send them my way. As September comes to a close the amount of Hummingbirds will be almost nil. Personally, there will be at least two feeders out all the way through October just in case of some stragglers. Someone asked if keeping their feeders out would cause the Hummers to stay later than usual. I can safely say that when it is time for them to leave, they will go south.

The unknown bird drinking from my mothers Hummer feeder has finally been identified. It returned to feed and she said that my brother got a peek at it. With bird book in hand it was found to be a Northern Flicker, a member of the Woodpecker clan. I was thinking that it was a much smaller bird.

My good friend Anthony Gray stopped by to see me this past Friday, and asked if I would like to eat Chinese on Saturday with him. Well, hmm, does a big brown bear live in the deep woods? It should be against the law to refuse a special friend the chance to dine with you.

After a visit to Peking, Anthony asked if I would like to take a ride out into the country. We headed down Mann Road where many years ago we placed out 33 Bluebird houses around the circle. If my memory serves me right we had almost a full Bluebird trail where most of the country folks wanted to participate. As we drove around we found that many of the ones where we put them out to start with had been replaced by newer houses. It is always great to plant a seed then watch as people take it on themselves to water and nurture. That will always make me proud.

With the weather shifting from summer to the fall mode, we will be seeing more and more of our summer visitors take flight and head for their wintering grounds. Of course it will be summer there when they arrive. They will need all that time to fatten up and their plumage will start to turn to their breeding plumage and they will return to do it all over again. You might think that they would go south and breed there also, but I believe it would wear their tiny bodies out. There are still Chimney Swifts here, but in the next couple of weeks when colder weather returns, it will put a damper on the flying insects that make up their diet, so they will have no choice but to pack the bags. Thank goodness that birds are not like us. Can you imagine the Swifts making a trip of 3,000 miles to Peru and listening to the young ones chirping, "are we there yet?"

With all our summer favorites going home, it is some consolation that we will soon be welcoming our winter favorites. If you were to ask Karen Franklin what she would be looking forward to returning, I can probably name at least a couple on her list. That would most likely be the White-throated Sparrow and Dark-eyed Juncos. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if the starlings flew south for the winter and then decided to stay there instead of returning. No such luck!

I have made plans to attend the 31st annual Mt. Juliet Pow Wow this coming weekend, September, 22nd and 23rd starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Mundy Memorial Park. There will be a lot of Native American crafts, food and Native dancing for the whole family to enjoy. Just maybe you might find me, but I won't be doing any dancing.

We would love to hear from you as to what’s lurking about in your neighborhood and at your feeders. You can reach Karen Franklin via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and write me at 606 Fairview Ave., Lebanon, TN, 37087 or e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it