All
the hummers are transients right now; all my regulars are gone. Here's hoping
for a safe trip for them all. It was not a good year for hummingbirds this
year; too dry of weather causing almost no flowers and not a great year for the
little insects that they also eat. I had very busy feeders this year (not
unusual) but there were less individuals visiting and I noticed only one
nesting period when we usually seem to have two. I get real tired of making the
sugar-water concentrate over the season and having to constantly fill the
feeders but I really like the little things and miss them when they go and I am
always eager to see the first one in the spring. I hope my troubles of making
sure they have sugar-water helps them out. They have helped me since we started
attracting them, by eating bugs and whatnot, not to mention entertainment. I
have taken a few feeders down so far and am not having to fill the others
everyday anymore. I didn't have to fill any today and will probably take
another down tomorrow. I had nine up this year and had to fill them all at
least once in a day and a half for the less popular ones, and as much as twice
a day for the most popular ones. The change happened fast this year, from
constant maintenance to almost none in a day. I think it might be because of a
lesser number of young this year; they tend to stick around a bit longer than
the older ones.
There
is one male, in particular, that I look forward to every year but he has got to
be getting close to the end of his life. He stands out because he is built a
tad different than the others--he is
short and stocky--we call him little fatty.
I have been able to pick out some of his offspring because of the
stockiness; he had a real good year about three years ago and a bunch of stocky
young ones were born. I kind off have the feeling this was his last year. But
some of his offspring come back every year too. We will see next spring who
shows up.
7 comments:
We don't see hardly any hummers around here. In fact I can't remember that the last time I did. In Long Lane we had regulars that came every year too, and we thought that was pretty cool. I miss those little birdies! There are several stray cats around here, but then again in Long Lane the cats didn't bother the hummers. Hmm... I think I'll get a feeder or two for next hummer season.
All of our cats go through the hummer hunt but they get in trouble for it and tend to go on to other prey that they can hunt without getting anyone mad. Morg's cat, Donna, is the only one we have or had that is in anyway persistent about it. She is not very subtle about hunting them and the birds just avoid the feeder until someone notices her and scolds her. She doesn't see well and has yet to catch one; I don't think she understands why she is not a good hunter.
Texas is actually a good place for a hummer habit; many of them pass through there to and from their wintering grounds. In cities though, one doesn't usually see them unless a feeder is put out. A good time to put a feeder up in your area would be early March, about the first week. I put my first one out about that time but then it takes about a week or so before the first one is seen and probably shouldn't bother until the middle of March but I get antsy. It should be just the right time for how far south you are.
And I just gotta say again, thanks for that bead curtain. We have not had one hummer in the den all season long when we usually have to rescue a few out of it every year, more if we would forget to shut the outside door before going inside for any length of time. We see them outside the curtain, checking things out inside, but they don't fly in. It has been great.
So cool that the beaded curtain works so well. It's weird, but until your blog about the humming birds, I had forgotten how much I liked having them around, and now I truly miss them. Yep, next March I'm DEFINITELY going to put out some feeders.
Does you complex management have flowers put out? If they do, that helps attract them too, even if not a type of flower they can utilize, the colors make them curious. Putting out a planter of flowers near your feeder, if you can, isn't a bad idea whether the complex has flowers or not. They really like Fuchsia plants.
There are some bushes with flowers on them, across the parking lot not far from here (20 feet or so). Plus some of the people in the same building have flower plants hanging on the balconies. I just have even been watching for hummers, pretty sure I haven't seen any. Just bees, some weird waspy looking things, butterflies and moths though.
Sigh, it should've said that I just *haven't* been watching for hummers.
I figured that is what you meant.
It is rare to see hummers unless one feeds them whether by sugar-water feeder or planting for them or both.
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