The humming birds know Winter is coming

[Winger Ed.]

The humming birds are starting to migrate.
We have had four that lived here all Summer, but the Fall migration is on!
We've put out extra feeders for the 20 or so that are here tanking up getting ready to go,
(I think) to Mexico for the winter.
I wish the picture was better. It's really cool to see them all buzzing around like a swarm of bees.
There's only 10-11 in the picture out of at least 20 that are here.
It's hard to catch more than about half of them in one picture.


I have a lot more faith in them predicting the coming Winter than those 'wooly bear' caterpillars.
I've seen a bunch of them all squashed on the street.
I figure they aren't smart enough to know if a car is coming, much less Winter.

[45_Colt]

Humming birds are an amazing critter(!). We used to get them around here on a regular basis. Little tiny things that buzz into a window look see. Then gone in a flash.

They use so much energy that they actually go into hibernation every night, when sleeping. Otherwise they would starve within that period of time.

With some luck they may make a come back here. Even the butterfly's have been scarce.

45_Colt

[Randy Bohannon]

Meadowlarks and the Robins have left Wyoming with lots of sign of a early fall, Cottonwoods have color on them.

[Handloader109]

I've had 2 pair here all summer, last year only one. But there have been several more pairs this week come through. Don't stay long, yep, they are heading back south...

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[HWooldridge]

Ours also left last week. We had somewhere around 20 - but I honestly couldn’t keep count. My wife keeps 4-5 feeders going and there’s usually 3-4 birds at each one.

[Hick]

Our 6 were still here as of this morning (northern Nevada). But they usually leave about this tie-- so we are watching every morning to see if they are still with us. Amazing birds!

[oscarflytyer]

Handful here (very N AL) going nuts lately, espec tonight when I refreshed all 4 feeders. They came in very late here this year. No sings of leaving at this time.

[Big Tom]

Similar here in SW Ohio - we typically have 5-6 in the summer and they are here almost the whole day, filling up and getting ready to leave. Typically, the last days they show up are around September 23.

[DougGuy]

My "regulars" were gone yesterday, they would be there from dawn feeding up but they were conspicuously nowhere to be seen all day. I had two visit the feeder out front yesterday afternoon/evening, and one visit the feeder at the kitchen window this morning. I am thinking these are migrating through.

Central NC here, tucked right up near the VA border on I-85

[atfsux]

If you ever get the bug to really study hummingbirds and want to see as wide a variety of them as possible, bird watchers know the best place in the country for that is a small sleepy place near the Mexico border in Arizona called Portal.

Why? Well, Portal is the closest people population to a geographic oddity at the base of the Chiricahua Mountains where, within 7 miles, there is a variation of altitude and vegetation ranging from 4500 feet in Portal, to over 9700 feet on Chiricahua Peak, not to mention the lower lying desert areas between Portal and the border 40 miles to the south. All of this is smack dab in the middle of the migration route for most birds transiting either north or south, and providing a suitable habitat somewhere within that range of options in that 7 mile radius for nearly any species of bird. As a result, bird watchers and scientists from around the globe gravitate there throughout the year to see as many species in one place as anyone is ever likely to encounter. And of all bird species, this is particularly true of the hummingbirds. There are 16 various hummingbird species to be found there, with three of them being year round residents.

I know all this even though I am not a bird fanatic because my family homesteaded in the area prior to statehood at a place called Hilltop. The old apple orchards on the homestead were converted to a vineyard about 25 years ago. A vineyard called Colibri Vineyard & Winery. For those that remember their high school Spanish classes, colibri means hummingbird.

Because of the variation in altitude and habitat, no matter what time of year you visit, you can find a comfortable temperature to enjoy yourself there.

https://azstateparks.com/arizona-hummingbirds

[FISH4BUGS]

We have 3 hummer feeders and have visitors all summer. I was checking the feeders had one investigate me when I went out the other day. She got into my face about a foot away and buzzed around my head a few times, then went to the feeder about a foot away.
We are down to two female Rubys and I have not seen them yet today. We leave our feeders out until mid October to catch any late stragglers.
Any day now they will be gone....but we will be waiting and watching for them in the spring.
We are in east central NH.

[Rickf1985]

I am in central NJ and we are down to the last two. Every year they hang around until it gets really cool out and then they are gone. All the rest are already gone. Think about these tiny birds flying from the northeast to Mexico and South America!!! Amazing.

[MrWolf]

I am in central NJ and we are down to the last two. Every year they hang around until it gets really cool out and then they are gone. All the rest are already gone. Think about these tiny birds flying from the northeast to Mexico and South America!!! Amazing.

Born and raised in South Plainfield. Don't remember many as a kid there but I know out here I was feeding 3-4. Hard to keep track of as they looked to be all the same family. They let me know when the feeder needed to be refilled. Very fun to watch. I didn't hang it this year. Kinda forgot with everything else.

[waksupi]

Something I thought strange I saw a couple weeks ago while at Tiber Reservoir in central Montana, was thousands of what looked like a grey gull, all flying north in a migratory formation.

[Reg]

Really don’t have many of the little humming birds around here but the little small ducks that come thru first are flying, the corn is drying down and the cottonwoods are getting that dusty look to them. Yup, fall is here.

[Winger Ed.]

had one investigate me when I went out the other day. She got into my face about a foot away and buzzed around my head a few times, .

If ya sit still near a feeder they are used to, wear a red hat or shirt, they'll buzz all around you.
I've never had one actually touch me, but they'll get with a inch or two checking out that 'big red flower'.

[super6]

Checking in from South Carolina (up state) We still have 50-100 hanging out. They will consume a quart a day! They return every year and bring their baby s.

[Daver7]

Just west of Kansas City. We still have a few around. Whats interesting to me is ours don't get along. 2 on a feeder just don't last long. Sometimes one will just hang out to make sure another one doesn't come by.

[Winger Ed.]

Just west of Kansas City. We still have a few around. Whats interesting to me is ours don't get along. 2 on a feeder just don't last long. Sometimes one will just hang out to make sure another one doesn't come by.

They all do that.
Not so much during the migration, but all summer they're constantly chasing each other off the feeders.
They're what we call 'bully birds' when discussing dining arrangements.

[Blkpwdrbuff]

We have a Rose of Sharon tree/bush and since it blossomed out we have hoards of hummingbirds and they like to go into "attack mode" when we walk by it on the sidewalk.

[Maineboy]

We have them here in the north country from about May to September. The last time I saw one was about 3 days ago.

[Winger Ed.]

We have them here in the north country from about May to September. The last time I saw one was about 3 days ago.

They might be on their way South and coming by here to tank up for the rest of their trip.

[.429&H110]

One twilight the wife was sitting under a big fruitbat that was hovering drinking on a feeder.
That big bat was impressive with a long tongue, flapping frantically trying to hover.
No more hummingbird feeder.

The hummingbirds found my drip irrigation.
I have drippers in raised beds and flower pots, runs for half an hour at 6AM & 6PM.
Hummers sit in a polite circle taking turns at the little bubblers.
Trouble is, I am watering packrats, lizards, and snakes, too.
I saw a roadrunner drinking on one once.
It's a desert and everybody's thirsty.

[MaryB]

Neighbor has 4 feeders on her deck. Sit out and have a soda with her and they will land on the edge of the glass and try to get a drink... little pests! Sit on your hand if you put a drop of soda on your palm...

Geese are flocking up, some locals have headed south, northern flights are starting to trickle over... cold approaching fast!

[atfsux]

One twilight the wife was sitting under a big fruitbat that was hovering drinking on a feeder.
That big bat was impressive with a long tongue, flapping frantically trying to hover.
No more hummingbird feeder.


Funny you should mention that. A friend of mine in Bisbee discovered his hummingbird feeder was suddenly turning up completely drained every morning, despite being refilled in the early evenings. He thought there must be some species of nocturnal hummingbird. But nope. As he sat out on his porch one night while grilling some steaks, he had some large nectar-feeding bat come flapping around like a giant furry leathery hummingbird, sucking down all the sugar water he could slurp.

[popper]

Haven't seen ours for a few days and a flight of honkers went over this morning. 110 to 80 in a couple days. Gonna be hard, trees out of stress from the heat and then time to take a nap. Wonder how much survives next year? Already lost (I think) the new dogwood planted last fall.

[JSnover]

Haven't seen ours this week, so I guess they left. The young squirrels have also moved out of the neighbor's birdhouse.

[.429&H110]

Arizona desert has an amazing variety of critters and they are all thirsty.
There are now a family of pumas in the Santa Ritas that took over from Border Patrol.
Don't bring a dog to Madeira Canyon, you call in the cats.
What we are seeing is nobody hunts anymore, and we are providing food and water.

I live in a tight suburb, walls and washes, thick cholla and creosote bush gone wild.
We have hummingbirds that are native and others migrating through.
Sheriff says I cannot shoot coyotes within a quartermile of a house
so we have packs of coyotes following the dogwalkers (me).
The Sheriff seems to be siding with the coyotes and rats. So is Fin and Fur.
I think a suppressed rifle after 10PM would be a great sport, but no.

These geezers feed and water the 'yotes, in backyards inside their walls.
A coyote can hop a six foot wall like it wasn't there.
Old folk entertainment, good fun until somebody gets hurt.
They put out cracked corn for the quail, fatten up the rats.
(Air rifle on rats is illegal, great fun)
Owls hawks and falcons eat the quail doves rats and small dogs.
Neighbors love bats on the feeders, take pictures of everything,
a parade of bobcats, javalinas, desert hares bigger than my dog.
A dozen kinds of reptiles, fearless desert iguanas, coontails...
(Chico can smell a coontail, alerts, points his departing butt at it. Found three so far).
(He pointed out a big one deep in some oleanders down the street,
had to return the next day to see if it was still there, it was, he was disappointed
because he likes to watch me kill them. Sorry, Chico, that's not our snake.)

Every once in a while a puma wanders down the big wash.
That's a spring thing, they're looking for javalina piglets.
Next thing will likely be black bears coming to the cracked corn.

In a retirement village, the streets are deserted after dark, quiet as a grave.
This was a hot summer, the snowbirds aren't back yet, half the houses empty.
The coyotes settle in on the lawn furniture for fine dog beds.
The irrigation leaks twice a day, makes a nice puddle, breakfast next door.
Amazing to watch a javalina eat a prickly pear, munch munch on the stickers.
If you google search "javalina attack" it comes up Green Valley AZ.
I was fine until the wife brought home an old toothless chihuahua.
Now I am hunting with live bait.