return of the hummies

I saw my first hummie of the season! Brad and mom have seen them but I didn't.....until Saturday night. One lone hummie came to the feeder and gorged himself.

The boys are still visiting the feeders in the morning and evening. No signs of the moms yet. The raccoons decided to get drunk on sugar water the other night. Now, we're bringing in the feeders for the nights. We have lots of seed feeders, and now two hummie feeders too.

Drunk raccoons, now that's funny.

These two need a 12 step program!

I've heard of deer and moose drinking from hummie feeders.....I know a few superfat squirrels here who try to do the same.

So far I've only seen one male hummie.

Ours are coming back. I saw two males facing off for one of the feeders. I think the battles will begin soon. It gets crazy here with the swarms of hummies trying to get the most.

I wish I could see a hummie again....no sightings over the weekend but the feeder level seems to be lower. Brad said he sees the one male, but not as often as we did last year. Could it be most of them didn't come this far north this year?

And I've seen a tiny little female a couple of times, but my juice is going down too, so either she's been there a lot more than I've noticed, or there are others helping her out.

I just bought a 10 pound bag of sugar to get through the season. The little birds will drink most of that before they leave in October. They're starting to come back to the feeders, so the kids must be hatched.

I have a feeling we just don't have many hummies here in Rockton this year. Other than the one sighting I haven't seen any anywhere. My mom hasn't either besides at Brads feeder (twice). Last year we were seeing them all over the place!

I bet you're a couple weeks behind us. We had some at first, then they disappeared for a few weeks. Now, they're starting to come back. I saw four today. By July, we have swarms at the feeders. I can't even count them.

I gotta remember, they were late coming back this year. Mom's hanging out another hummie and seed feeder, just in case the swarm shows up.
The lone seed feeder can't handle the crowd at dawn and dusk....looks like rush hour at McD's there's so many birds out there jockeying for a space to land.

The syrup battles are starting up. I've seen several buzzing around and chasing each other from the feeders. Some girls are showing up too.

I'm not getting any traffic to speak of at my hummie feeder...

I'll bet you'll see some in a couple weeks. Ours are just starting back.

BobCat wrote:I'm not getting any traffic to speak of at my hummie feeder...

Neither are we.....only one lone hummie so far.

Yep - only one little female...

Ours is a male.....we're wondering if he even found a female here to nest with.

We have absolute swarms now. I guess the babies are coming along with their moms. I'm going through a bottle of syrup every day. I mix up some concentrated stuff and mix it 1/2 syrup with 1/2 water. That way, I only need to make sugar water once a week. The birds have gone through almost 5 pounds of sugar so far. I bought a 10 pound bag, and will probably need a few more pounds before they migrate in October.

No real swarms, but Donna reports more than a few at her feeder on the other side of the building. So far we only have the two coming to ours, a male and a female. Only a matter of time before we see the kids.

So far I have seen any. We have tons of flowers that will attract them.

They seem to be sneakier in town. This is the only place I've ever seen so many. I know they were at our house in town, but it was hard to catch sight of them.

I saw one hummie while waiting at the church for the pantry to open. Seemed to be studying it's own shadow on the church siding. He did this for nearly 15 minutes before flying off to who knows where.

The library has a LOT of trumpet shaped flowers in their flowerboxes this year, all pink and red. I bet the hummies come here but I just am not looking at the right time to see them. There doesn't seem to be as many of them here this year as years past.

They are most active at sunup and sundown. Our crowd seems to be about the same size. I wonder if your endless cold weather had many of them decide to stay further south this year.

I saw a few at sunup at the church last time I went to the pantry. Saw the one who comes to our feeder too. They waste no time between our putting out a nice clean refilled feeder and getting in it for a meal.