Any Hummingbird Watchers Out There?

auntienance

Mary, I've witnessed hummer fights several times (last year one wrestled another to the ground right next to me) but I've never seen one get a drink anywhere. Very neat!

voraciousreader

My fuschias have been hanging on my porch since late spring and FINALLY now, I saw my first hummingbird of the year! Planted some black eyed Susans this year and have butterflies galore!

FilterLady

Hi y'all,

We have about 2 dozen hummers fighting over 4 feeders.  I love to watch them.  They don't care if we are standing by the feeders or not, they still come.

My 2 youngest granddaughters (ages 3 & 4) were here yesterday and loved watching them.  They'd say "look Mamaw, look Papaw" at all the hummingbirds!

Hope they stick around a while.

coraleliz

Just throwing this out there. My non-scientific study. I usually feed the hummers nectar I make from C&H cane sugar I get in 10lb bags at Costco. The hummers in my yard eat alot! I ran out & purchased the store brand generic at our local grocery chain. The bag's ingredient said 'sugar' not 'cane sugar'. I heard somewhere that if it doesn't say cane sugar it's made from beets or posibly beets. The hummingbirds all but disappeared when I made the switch. My feeder that sees the most activity usually gets emptied in 2 hours. 2 days after making the switch, it was still almost full. I switched back to the C&H brand & they've all returned. Yeh!!! Just curious if anyone else has come across this. Could be other explanations...........I know.....

auntienance

I use the cheapest sugar I can find (Walmart great value brand I think) in 10 pound bags and I'm going through a bag a week. I don't know how I'd keep up if I found something they liked better lol!

FilterLady

I use whatever sugar I have on hand, sometimes Domino sometimes WalMart brand, etc.

My hummers come to them the same as far as I can tell.

voraciousreader

Are the squirrels attracted to the sugar feeder? I have a squirrel's nest in one of my trees... Should charge them rent! They co-exist on the ground with the big birds that can't get to my bird feeder. I am afraid to put out a hummingbird feeder because of the squirrels. That's why I put out the fuschias instead...

FilterLady

The squirrels here have never been attracted to my hummingbird feeders.  Butterflies will occasionally sip from them.

From time to time we have problems with yellow jackets but not so much this year.

auntienance

The squirrels (and we have thousands of them) don't bother the feeders but the raccoons sure do.

voraciousreader

Raccoons???!!! Hmmmmm... That might be a problem...Thanks for warning me!

coraleliz

The squirrels leave my hummingbird feeders alone & the raccoons haven't been a problem. The squirrels & rats are the reason I don't have any other kind of feeders. The raccoons get in the bird bath. It might be impossible(?) for them to get at my feeders because of where I hang them. Yellow jackets & ants are sometimes problematic

cinnamonsmiles

We have a bad black ant problem around here. This past summer was my first time with a humming bird feeder. I had a big problem with black ants crawling up the sheperd's hook and getting in the hummer feeder. I tried putting vaseline on a couple spots on the hook (at the top and bottom) but the darn ants crawled right over it. Anyone have a solution for me for next year?

And is it true that Hummingbirds hitch a ride on the backs of geese to travel south? 

Just looked up the link blessings gave out...

What is an ant moat? 

Blessings2011

An ant moat is simply a plastic cup that is filled with water, so that ants can crawl down the hook for the feeder, but to get to the nectar, the only way is to jump in the water...and drown.

They come in many styles and shapes, but the most common one is about the size of a cap to a can of paint.

The annoying part is making sure they're always filled with water.

Here is just one example:

auntienance

You have to keep an eye on them. The other birds like to drink the water out of mine lol.

auntienance

Cinnamon, it's not true that they hitch. They fly the whole way and solo at that.

Connie07

Hello Hummer Lovers,

We love watching our hummers. Other critters dont mess with it, but ants & wasps do. Vaseline on the hanging wire and on the rain guard stopped my ants cold. Also, lizards will drink it.

Mine is hung from the patio cover, tried the shepards hook, got tons of ants.

I believe we have some traveling birds and resident birds too. This year we had a pregnant female and when her babies fledged they came with her. Soooo cute, itty bitty babies. They chatter when feeding and we have noticed the changing color of the little ones, with that beautiful red coming in on their necks.

They are aggresive and will guard the feeder, dive bombing intruders, chasing away bees, etc. Once I saw and heard a bird body slam another. My friend in north Ga. had one slam into a glass door, it knocked itself out. Her DH picked it up and held it til it got its senses back and flew away!

They say its a good luck sign for them to visit you, so we are blessed. I love watching them zoom in, hide in the shrubs and one actually sat on my little fountain and drank and took a little bath. Had never seen a hummer go to that water. Very cool.

Connie

auntienance

One flew into our glass door this year too. Took him a minute but seemed to recover by himself. He worried me to death. I'm sad, we haven't seen a mature male for a couple of weeks and the young males and females have thinned drastically. I've gone from filling feeders 3 times a day to just every two days. They will all be gone by next week. Then I'll start looking at the calendar wistfully until they return to make my day.

Connie07

Dont think we have orioles, are they small? We do have cardinals all year. They nest in our larger shrubs.

And we have cranes & herons, water birds that l love to see in flight. And Bald Eagles. If lm looking at dusk huge owls call each other, get together and chatter like good friends. Love to see them flying too.

Never considered it, but guess l've become a birdwatcher!!

Connie

mumito

auntienance

Oh my how gorgeous!

voraciousreader

Wow!!! ))

cinnamonsmiles

Beautiful picture!!!! Did you take that yourself?

mumito

My DH is tinyfishy his hobby is bird photoghraphy.I take photos too but do not have the patience like he does.

ElenaMarie62

Has anyone noticed that the hummingbirds are gone this week of October 1, 2012? I am in Maryland, and suddenly, they are no longer anywhere to be found or seen. I am sad. But, maybe we are in for a colder winter, and they had to leave to get down south before the cold sets in.

I still have my nectar out, just in case any from further north come through on their way south.  

Blessings2011

Our hummers stick around all winter.

It does freeze where we are, but no snow except at higher elevations.

We have a core group of about a dozen of them.

auntienance

I'm in Missouri and we had 3 yesterday. I haven't seen any this morning. Last year we saw the last one on October 5th. We've only been seeing one or two a day for the past week. I fear they've pretty much gone except for a few stragglers. I'll leave my feeders up until the 15th as we have had one as late as that.

auntienance

Can't believe it, we actually spotted a solo hummer at the feeder yesterday. She needs to get going!

voraciousreader

I was disappointed this year to see only a handful of hummingbirds but a few times.... BUT....I was delighted to see that a red-bellied woodpecker family made a home in one of my trees! What a beautiful bird!

FilterLady

We had dozens of hummers until the cold snap last week.  Now we only have about 4 or so.  I just love to watch them....can't wait till they return in big numbers.

I keep 1 feed out all year long just in case, lol

auntienance

filterlady, if I lived where you do, I would too. I read recently that more hummers are wintering on the gulf coast.