It is the time of year when we are carefully stepping onto the porch, making sure we are not hit by some hummingbird eager to get to a feeder, or by one defending a feeder. It gets a bit wild with between 15 and 20 hummingbirds zooming around and loading up for migration south.
Most of them are females or young birds: Anna's, blackchins, and the odd rufous. The rufous are the ones to look out for as they are little but fierce, and will defend "their" feeder with vigor and persistence.
We have four feeders out in various locations that I keep well supplied with nectar, going through about a cup of sugar a day. At night I leave one of the feeders up but take the others inside because the bats will empty every single one of them during the night. The one left out is for bats, after all they need to eat too.
1 comment:
had a close encourage ter with a hummer last week. was tending my tomatoes when one flew so close that I heard him before I saw him. he hovered about 30 inches away on the other side of the tomato before reversing course and finding breakfast in the nearby salvia. it was so cool. I envy your migration!
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