Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Backyard Birding => Topic started by: Howieh on June 27, 2013, 12:05:00 AM
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What a difference from the past two years when all I saw were females from dawn to dusk. I had a couple for a few weeks starting in late May but they have all but disappeared; now I may see one or two a week but that's all. Hopefully things will pick up in July and August after all the young have fledged, but...
Mad Max (my regular male) still comes around every day, tho not too often until twilight when he feeds frequently until well after sunset. He has a few favorite perches that he always spends time on before going to the feeder so I have time to set up with my camera before he arrives. I'm still playing around with my SX50, taking both stills and videos, and we just bought a 'smart' tv so I put the files directly on a flash drive because the tv has built-in software for playing the videos (MUCH easier than having to hook up the computer btw!). Boy, does he look fearsome on the big screen, not!
So Meghan, Richard and anyone else with hummingbird feeders - what's happening, are they around , etc.?
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As previously noted elsewhere on this site...no we are not seeing any HB lately. One visited once and has not been seen since. Nectar feeder is up and so is a hanging fucia. Last year we had frequent visitors. Strange to us.
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As previously noted elsewhere on this site...no we are not seeing any HB lately. One visited once and has not been seen since. Nectar feeder is up and so is a hanging fucia. Last year we had frequent visitors. Strange to us.
and strange to me too because, other than the feeder, there's absolutely nothing to attract them to my yard, but I now have a male and female coming and going all day. This was the first day the female was around a lot and she even had the audacity to use one of Mad Max's favorite perches. He chased her away at least twice but she keeps returning so I guess it's a good sign!
Where are you located? I'm in north Toronto, across the street from Bestview Park, where the hummers appear to be coming from.
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We are south of Cambridge Ont.
Thanks for the note
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We are south of Cambridge Ont.
Thanks for the note
You're welcome (somewhat belatedly!). Are you still waiting for things to pick up? Unfortunately the tree (a Manitoba Maple) that held one end of the tether that my hummingbird feeder was suspended from started growing like a weed so I had it cut down. I then took down my regular feeder and used the shepherds hook for the hummingbird feeder. So the canopy is gone but the hummers never missed a beat and Mad Max STILL does his courting dance when they are both around at the same time (last time was early Wed morning and I just happened to be in the yard at the time - I still think she's not impressed but what do I know?!). I had an ant problem but I used the bottom of a 500ml water bottle to create a moat halfway up the pole and it works like a charm - not a single ant seen on the feeder since I installed it a few days ago! However (isn't there always a however??) the hornets are back and if their numbers increase I may have to use the tether to hang a few traps.
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stupid futher muckers....
just saw a wee little one in my backyard. looked at the feeder and the salvia i had, didn't bother feeding.
not sure if the feeder and flowers' proximity to my AC unit (which was running) was an issue. they're within 5-10 ft
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stupid futher muckers....
just saw a wee little one in my backyard. looked at the feeder and the salvia i had, didn't bother feeding.
not sure if the feeder and flowers' proximity to my AC unit (which was running) was an issue. they're within 5-10 ft
Good point; my feeder is about twenty feet from the A/C and it doesn't seem to bother them at all, i.e. when it starts up during a 'feed' the bird usually just ignores it. MM showed up at 8pm while the female was having her evening shot, chased her off the feeder (I think he actually made contact with her!) and did his courtship dance again - boy, is he macho or what?! :)
Incidentally, as far as Rosetta is concerned, I wonder if we can get them to plant some hummingbird attractors (or is it too late?) - gotta talk to Walter about that.
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stupid futher muckers....
just saw a wee little one in my backyard. looked at the feeder and the salvia i had, didn't bother feeding.
not sure if the feeder and flowers' proximity to my AC unit (which was running) was an issue. they're within 5-10 ft
Good point; my feeder is about twenty feet from the A/C and it doesn't seem to bother them at all, i.e. when it starts up during a 'feed' the bird usually just ignores it. MM showed up at 8pm while the female was having her evening shot, chased her off the feeder (I think he actually made contact with her!) and did his courtship dance again - boy, is he macho or what?! :)
Incidentally, as far as Rosetta is concerned, I wonder if we can get them to plant some hummingbird attractors (or is it too late?) - gotta talk to Walter about that.
i talked to Richard, who, i believe, is the head groundskeeper. seems like they had no intention to plant salvia. not sure if they are just "rotating crops" or trying to keep things looking new every year. it is a shame.
and yes, it is way too late.
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i talked to Richard, who, i believe, is the head groundskeeper. seems like they had no intention to plant salvia. not sure if they are just "rotating crops" or trying to keep things looking new every year. it is a shame.
and yes, it is way too late.
That's too bad - so where's the jewelweed?? This morning I have a female, a male and a young bird visiting the feeder. Is that the 'Gordie Howe hat-trick' for hummingbirds?
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hummer update of my own.
my infrequent hummingbird? apparently he's more frequent than i thought. my neighbour's seen it head to my yard a few times.
today, i was relaxing in my backyard and, at 3:20 PM, the hummer flew in, looked at the feeder and flew away. i got a great view of it in the 5 seconds he hung out.
i was surprised it didn't try to feed. i've taken my feeder down and taken off the strange anti-wasp caps that are in the inside of the "flower tube" that the manufacturer stopped putting on the new models. i added some more nectar and we'll see if this will make our hummer a more visible regular.
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I guess it's ok to post this link; very interesting but I have my doubts as to whether (or not) the bird actually died from drinking 'bad' nectar. I keep my feeder clean but I usually wait until the nectar level is below the top chamber before refilling, which is normally about 4 or 5 days. I was concerned about the internal temperature but even in the extreme heat it never gets beyond luke warm so I don't worry about it going bad (when in doubt I do a taste test since I don't want them ingesting anything I wouldn't take a chance on!)
http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesi ... NM=Ontario (http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=479138&MLID=ON&MLNM=Ontario)
Wow, a big flurry this morning with at least 3 females (or a mix of females and young) and Mad Max who now doesn't know who to chase! :) He came when one of the females was feeding and did his courtship dance (I think), circling the feeder for several seconds before leaving without feeding, but it was the reaction of the feeding bird that was really interesting. She stopped drinking and just froze for at least half a minute, which was long enough for me to grab a camera and get a shot through the window (I'm getting tired of taking feeder shots but I guess it's better than nothing....).
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So I'm in the backyard (last evening), Mad Max is sitting on his perch in the shrubs and I'm setting up to take stills (or a video) when he finally comes over to feed, and guess what - I focus on the feeder and there's another male already feeding! Big mistake! MM speeds over, chirping like mad, and chases the other guy away! (the video is not great but it does show both males at the same time so that's another first!). I don't know where the female was but as soon as they left she came over for a big relaxing slurp. Gonna be awfully dull around here after they leave. :)
Btw, the ant moat has been 100% effective and there are still only a few hornets (or wasps?) so I probably won't need the traps.
The Guild Inn summer art show is this weekend and we hope to get there on Saturday. Even with the crowds I've seen lots of hummers there in the past; I'll post here if I see any this weekend - still haven't seen any at Edward Gardens and haven't been to Rosetta for several weeks so I don't know what's happening there.
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i was in my 2nd bedroom. looked outside and spied a hummingbird near my fence. it looked at flowers, flew to my feeder, looked at it, flew to my salvia, looked at them and flew away.
like, no idea what's wrong. never seen one feed from my feeder
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Well, Mad Max is a no show since yesterday so he may be gone but I still have a few females and young birds as regulars and while I know they aren't exactly social creatures they always seem to come in pairs, and the jousting that results makes for some great entertainment, like the dogfight earlier today that saw both birds almost hit the ground! It's been really good without the regular feeder - I haven't seen a sparrow or a squirrel in my yard for almost two months but the other birds are still around (I.e. goldfinches, cardinals, downies, etc.) so I'm sure they will return when I replace the hummingbird feeder with the regular feeder in early October.
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Well, since my earlier post I have seen one hummer drop in a few times. It goes to the Fucia but does not take any sips. When I had the HB feeder up I saw nothing at it. Now in the past few days I have seen one darting around but still not drinking anywhere. In fact tonight it was just sitting in the top few branches of a dead tree. Seemed quite content to visit with no interest in drinking. Anyway, glad to have one around for a while.
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Well, since my earlier post I have seen one hummer drop in a few times. It goes to the Fucia but does not take any sips. When I had the HB feeder up I saw nothing at it. Now in the past few days I have seen one darting around but still not drinking anywhere. In fact tonight it was just sitting in the top few branches of a dead tree. Seemed quite content to visit with no interest in drinking. Anyway, glad to have one around for a while.
What model feeder do you have? Mine is the basic four flower Yule-Hyde from Cdn Tire and the hummers all seem to love it, and lately I've been filling it about two thirds instead of half full and they're drinking me dry in about three days (used to be 5 - 7 days!). The males are gradually disappearing but I've got lots of females and young birds coming and going in a steady stream. As I said before there are no flowers in my yard but I am across from a woodland park where they seem to be coming from.
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A male showed up early this morning while a female was sitting on the far perch. He buzzed her a few times and headed for the feeder and, as has become the case lately, she took off after him and chased him away! Last evening was wild; for almost an hour there were at least 3 females and/or young birds chasing each other all over the place. As soon as a bird landed, either on a perch or at the feeder, another bird would come and bump it off. I have lots of SX50 video showing the action but I'm still trying to figure out how to lock the exposure while shooting videos. I was at Rosetta last week and I didn't see too much that will keep the hummers there while they fatten up for the trip south, but you never know....so where's the jewelweed?
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so yeah, i am happy. randomly looked into my back yard this morning at 8 AM. a hummer was feeding and feeding and feeding from the feeder. it may only come once a day and at random times, but yeah, i am pretty damn happy
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so yeah, i am happy. randomly looked into my back yard this morning at 8 AM. a hummer was feeding and feeding and feeding from the feeder. it may only come once a day and at random times, but yeah, i am pretty damn happy
Chances are pretty good that your hummer was around from before sunrise (these days sunrise is just before 6:30AM) and will be a steady visitor until late in the day. My last mature male was seen on Aug 15 but this morning (Sunday) I photographed a young male who has been a regular for a few weeks. The young birds show up very early in the day but they don't stay around as late as the mature birds. Good luck, I'm sure you'll see a few more before they head south for the winter!
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It may not be a good year for monarchs but it sure has been a great year for hummingbirds! The steady stream, lasting all day, has pretty well dried up but just when I think it's all over (i.e. after not seeing any hummers for several hours) another one shows up and hangs around long enough for me to get some decent shots with my SX50, as happened late Monday afternoon. They are still being reported on the Simcoe and Muskoka bird boards so I'm pretty sure they're migrants and my feeder is now visible to overflying birds (good riddance to the missing Manitoba Maple!) so that could explain the late visitors. I'll fill it again if necessary and hopefully they will keep dropping in!
So Meghan, Richard and anyone else with HB feeders, are you still seeing any hummers?
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Last hummer i've seen was on 27 aug. I still have the feeder up.
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I had one at the feeder early this morning and another(?) one perched in a tree behind the feeder, in full sun, about an hour ago, but by the time I got outside with the camera it was gone. I waited and she (I'm quite sure it's a young female) returned but stayed in the tree tops. Since the photo-ops were pretty well gone I came inside so she would come to the feeder (I'm still waiting!). As long as she doesn't head south today she'll probably hang around overnight so I expect (hope?) to see her at the feeder tomorrow morning.
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As I predicted, the hummer that was around Tuesday made her last visit early Wednesday morning and I think that's it for the season. I'll leave the hummingbird feeder up until the nectar dries up, which should occur sometime this weekend, but I need the feeder pole for the regular feeder (they're waiting impatiently!) - so goodbye hummers, hello sparrows and squirrels! :)
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I had one on Tuesday, as I reported. She was hitting the feeders about every 15 minutes over the 3 hours I was watching her and whatever else in the yard. Wednesday she returned and the visits were about every 30 minutes. I'm keeping an eye out for her this afternoon; I changed the water just a bit ago.
Yes, goodbye Hummers. Although, for us, this is the most Hummingbird action we've seen around the yard ever. :)
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I still have 2 regular females and the odd transient pops in every once in a while.
Just a note..keep your feeders full and clean, just like in the summer. Hummers are migrating through and if you have a dirty or empty feeder they will not stick around.
But if they are clean and full of fresh nectar, then they will stay for a few days
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I still have 2 regular females and the odd transient pops in every once in a while.
Just a note..keep your feeders full and clean, just like in the summer. Hummers are migrating through and if you have a dirty or empty feeder they will not stick around.
But if they are clean and full of fresh nectar, then they will stay for a few days
Not to say it could NOT happen but I would be in total shock if a hummer came to my feeder now. I'm nearly twenty miles from the lake and at this point most of the hummingbirds are moving along the lakeshore, but I still have a few days worth of nectar so I'll leave the feeder out. And I don't want to miss the migratory sparrows (white crowned and white throated) that are attracted by birds at the regular feeder. Are there any places along the lake where hummers are still hanging around?
Btw, we will be spending a day in Cristobal, Panama in mid December so I am hopeful of seeing some of my summer visitors in their winter habitat, along with a few other species that winter there!
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I saw a juvenile or female RTH at the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga this week. It was feeding from the Jewelweed.
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Not to say it could NOT happen but I would be in total shock if a hummer came to my feeder now. I'm nearly twenty miles from the lake and at this point most of the hummingbirds are moving along the lakeshore, but I still have a few days worth of nectar so I'll leave the feeder out. Are there any places along the lake where hummers are still hanging around?
Hey Howie, Hummingbirds are still being reported from the Muscoka area. Good numbers from backyard feeders still coming in. Even my aunt in Gravenhurst still has a few, so like I said...I think you will still have them. Whether you see them or not is a different story :wink:
As for spots down at the lake, I haven't gone looking for any this year. I'll be out and about over the next few days so if I find any I will let you know.
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Hey Howie, Hummingbirds are still being reported from the Muskoka area. Good numbers from backyard feeders still coming in. Even my aunt in Gravenhurst still has a few, so like I said...I think you will still have them. Whether you see them or not is a different story :wink:
As for spots down at the lake, I haven't gone looking for any this year. I'll be out and about over the next few days so if I find any I will let you know.
I know it's possible but unless there are still hundreds of hummers heading south from north of the city the odds of one flying directly over my yard and seeing the feeder are VERY small, but admittedly better than before when the now defunct(?) tree covered half the yard. Btw, I've never seen so many hornets this late in the season; I'm using a homemade trap and every ten minutes or so I can get rid of at least fifty to one hundred of the little beasts!
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This hummingbird was visiting the hanging baskets on my patio in Waterdown this morning. There are also a couple still visiting my neighbour's feeders. I don't expect to see them around much longer, though.
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I've been away the last 3 days. I come home late this aft to a Hummer here; not sure if its the same one from last week or not.
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I've been away the last 3 days. I come home late this aft to a Hummer here; not sure if its the same one from last week or not.
Wow, lucky you! They've been gone three days and I'm already suffering from hummer withdrawal! :(
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Just after I sent my bit in the discussion forum, I look out back, and she's still here feeding on the fresh batch. :)
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Meghan, I am not worthy!! (Howie bows). I have a hummer at my feeder, saw her earlier and thought she'd left but she's hanging around up in the trees. Unfortunately I also still have LOTS of hornets but the trap is attracting most of them so that's a help. I'll try to get pictures later when the sun is more favorable. :)
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Mine is still coming at least every 20-30 mins. House Sparrows giving her grief.
12:20pm, she's feeding.
Someone told me they have had them in November (in the GTA).
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Mine is still coming at least every 20-30 mins. House Sparrows giving her grief.
12:20pm, she's feeding.
Someone told me they have had them in November (in the GTA).
Ruby throats are extremely rare after mid October - could it have been a Rufous HB?
If she hadn't left by early afternoon you'll probably see her tomorrow. I had one here all day so I expect she'll also be around tomorrow, and they're STILL being reported north of TO so hopefully there's more to come our way.
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It's 7:18am and she's at the feeder! If she starts returning at short intervals she'll probably leave this morning. It must be cold out - there are no hornets flying around - yet! :)
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We had a RTH juvenile or female at our butterfly bush at noon today. (Tuesday 24). It was actually somewhat more exciting to see a Monarch, too, as those have been so rare this year.
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Meghan, I am not worthy!! (Howie bows). I have a hummer at my feeder, saw her earlier and thought she'd left but she's hanging around up in the trees. Unfortunately I also still have LOTS of hornets but the trap is attracting most of them so that's a help. I'll try to get pictures later when the sun is more favorable. :)
:D I love it when I am right!! :wink:
I still have at least 2 regulars every day.
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:D I love it when I am right!! :wink:
I still have at least 2 regulars every day.
2 a day - wow! Oh, you mean hummingbirds... :)
As I suspected might happen the hummer I saw yesterday showed up a few times early this morning and probably headed south because the rest of the day was quiet, so maybe that's finally it...ok, ok, I'll refill the feeder one more time but only because the weather is looking great for the next few days and you never know!?
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So, Meghan, do you STILL have hummingbirds? I haven't seen any for a few days and I moved the HB feeder to a tree branch so I guess I'll leave it out until it dries up, which should be in about a week. It took the sparrows almost a day to discover the regular feeder but they're back in droves(?) so hopefully that will attract some other birds; still no sign of the white throated or white crowned sparrows.
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Don't ask me why but I had just finished refilling the hornet trap and was leaving the yard and for some unknown reason I turned around to have one last look and guess what? - there's a hummingbird at the feeder! She was gone when I got to the back window but she soon returned and since it was still too dark for stills (7:22am) I managed to get a pretty good video. She flew into the bushes after feeding so I think she'll be back but I don't think she'll hang around all day - or will she? :) Is anyone else still seeing them?
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Ours left on September 25th. I still have the feeders out just in case anyone else stops by.
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Ours left on September 25th. I still have the feeders out just in case anyone else stops by.
That was my last day also, until yesterday that is! She's still here this morning - will I see a hummer in October? Guess only time will tell! :)
Btw, I saw a hummer yesterday at Rosetta MG, feeding from the hanging basket at the entrance to the gardens from the parking lot.
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Sorry about hogging the backyard birding thread but it's a lousy day and I'm stuck inside doing chores but every so often I peek outside and good grief boys and girls!! - I've now got two hummers coming to the feeder; in fact I was watching one feed when the other one came over to check me out and actually tapped the window. Guess I WILL be seeing hummingbirds in October after all!
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I've still got 2 as of this morning.
They are feeding on the, still blooming, Honeysuckle.
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I've still got 2 as of this morning.
They are feeding on the, still blooming, Honeysuckle.
I guess you are used to seeing them this late but for me this is more than 3 weeks later than for first two years I had the feeder. Getting rid of the Manitoba maple probably helped. How much longer can this go on??
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just remember that the winds suck for southern migration.
that and the warm days means that you'll possibly have RTH for another 1-2 weeks. and then after that, you may get northern migrants.
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Last known visitor yesterday (Oct 2) morning - feeder almost dry - should I refill it one more time? Ok, Ok, I'm just thinking out loud to myself... :)
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My rule of thumb is to have your feeders out at least one week after the last sighting. I read that somewhere.
I did not see any Hummingbirds today.
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And if you want a chance to get a Rufous or other rare hummingbirds you should keep having them filled in November/December.
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And if you want a chance to get a Rufous or other rare hummingbirds you should keep having them filled in November/December.
I'll leave it out until the first hard freeze. It's actually in a better viewing location since I moved it to put up the regular feeder so if anything shows up while I'm at the computer I'll probably see it. Has anyone on this forum seen a Rufous HB in Ontario?