Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Backyard Birding => Topic started by: JW Mills on May 13, 2015, 09:04:38 PM
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A male hummingbird visited our feeder this evening.
First one of the season for the yard.
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I saw the male again the following morning but I haven't seen it since.
This afternoon a female visited the feeder.
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It looks like the female is nesting in our area again.
I've seen her at our feeder almost every day.
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It looks like the female is nesting in our area again.
I've seen her at our feeder almost every day.
Are you sure it's a female? A couple of closeup shots of a female(?) with my SX50 showed it to be a young male, i.e. a few of the gorget (neck) feathers have started to darken. I also have a male who shows up before sunrise and just before sunset with very few visits in between. I'm pretty sure it's the same bird because he comes directly to the feeder from the woods across the street. I really look forward to the post fledging period when lots more females and young birds show up, often several at the same time; the aerial battles can get pretty exciting! :)
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Howie, you may be onto something. I'll check more closely the next time he/she shows up.
I do know that the male who showed up first has not been seen since.
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The female showed up yesterday and today and it's definitely a female.
The male visited yesterday as well.
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Wonders never cease! I was lamenting the fact that my regular male had not showed up for over a week and guess what (no, what Howie?)? :) I was standing beside the feeder when a male suddenly flew in and perched right in front of me AND one of the other birds showed up right after so I got to witness my first courtship flight of the year! And this morning I have (at least) two females fighting over the feeder. Things are finally picking up!
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We now have three Hummers, two female and one male!
Our first two showed up over a month ago. We noticed that while the male perched when feeding, the female never did. A few days ago the visits to the feeder by the female increased dramatically and we noticed that sometimes she perched and sometimes she didn't. We wondered if the female had changed her feeding habit after a month or was there a second female? This morning we had our answer. My gf saw two females come to the feeder at the same time and of course, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over ownership of the feeder!
So now every time a female visits the feeder we look to see if she perches or not!
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Cool! and wait until the fledglings start showing up, especially when the male is around. :)
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
absolutely.....we didn't notice hummingbirds visiting....but, in fact, they were visiting.....put the feeders back up!
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
absolutely.....we didn't notice hummingbirds visiting....but, in fact, they were visiting.....put the feeders back up!
so if you didn't notice them visiting, how did you know they were visiting? :)
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
absolutely.....we didn't notice hummingbirds visiting....but, in fact, they were visiting.....put the feeders back up!
so if you didn't notice them visiting, how did you know they were visiting? :)
ah, mr sharp-photo, wise observation.....i went to the door to let my dog out, and lo and behold, a hummingbird....so, refilled the feeder (washed and cleaned, of course) and saw the hummingbird a couple of times after....(i have noted the date and times). i noticed them earlier this year, last year, it was later -- august -- and they came by quite frequently.
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
At our place the hummers are not continually at the feeder. Some visits are short, a few seconds and they're gone. If we're not at the window at the right time we won't see them. Yesterday the gf saw a female at 5:30 am, sunrise was at 5:47! Somedays we may not see them at all.
Put the feeder back up!
Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not coming.
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curious on opinions.
i only had one brief hummingbird visit and that was mid-May.
i was out of town for 6 weeks and my wife didn't look to see if we had visitors. she then joined me for a week and took the feeders down.
so...
should i bother putting the feeders back up?
At our place the hummers are not continually at the feeder. Some visits are short, a few seconds and they're gone. If we're not at the window at the right time we won't see them. Yesterday the gf saw a female at 5:30 am, sunrise was at 5:47! Somedays we may not see them at all.
Put the feeder back up!
Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not coming.
they're back up. don't fret. :)
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Although we have three Hummers, 1 male and 2 females, we have never seen more than one at any time, until today.
One of the females was at the feeder when the male came out of nowhere and chased her off!
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It seems the male Hummer has taken up residence in our yard. We've seen him for a few days now continually sitting on the same branch in the same tree.
I can only get a poor pic taken thru the window because he'll move deeper into the tree if I even step out into the yard.
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I've had one visit from a male during the past week so my regulars are probably gone. He chased a female straight up in the air and a few seconds later they both landed on the feeder and fed on opposite flowers (first time I've ever seen that at my feeder - he must have had a good time but was outta smokes so he offered her a drink! ;) ). I don't know what your setup is but try positioning a chair with a good view of his favorite perch; if he hangs around long enough he will get used to you, especially if you are already sitting when he arrives. I created several perches by stripping shrubbery branches at eye level and the hummers are very accomodating and very entertaining! I'm using my SX50 so 'in flight' shots are a low priority but I know I can probably get hovering shots later on at TBG or Rosetta MG.
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Howie, I have a few perches set up but he doesn't like any of them!
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Howie, I have a few perches set up but he doesn't like any of them!
I'm not surprised. My males never perch in the bushes; they either sit at the top of my neighbors pine tree or on a branch that I wedged under my shepherds hook so that the perch is about three feet off the ground (unfortunately I destroyed that perch last time I mowed the lawn :( ). After a week without any males I have one visiting today and he's been chased off the feeder a few times by females sitting in the bushes - talk about turning the tables!
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It seems the females have moved on. They have been replaced by two juvies.
The male is still around and chases the juvies out of the yard if he sees them.
Also, finally got a decent pic of the male.
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I was taking pictures of a hummer on one of my perches and the bird was exhibiting some really strange (nervous?) behavior so I figured one of the other hummers was close by. I zoomed out very slightly and guess what (no, what Howie?); there was another hummer about four inches away on the same perch! They actually sat together long enough for me to get a few shots before they took off together without going to the feeder. There was a third bird around a bit earlier but males are now very scarce. Walter, if you read this, will there be a salvia patch at Rosetta this year?
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What a fun day! One of my young males decided it was time to have the feeder for himself and for about half an hour he chased away any flying thing that came within two feet of the feeder! Ok, so the sparrows weren't really intimidated but he actually chased several chickadees into the bushes (yes, I know they usually take food to a protected area to eat but these were birds that perched on the shepherds hook above the hummingbird feeder on their way to the regular feeder). I usually position myself about four feet from his feeder and every time he came for a drink he came over to 'talk' to me, hovering about a foot from my face, chirping away - pretty cool stuff from a little fuzzball that thinks he owns the place! :)
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It seems that our resident birds have left. We haven't seen any activity for a few days now.
We are leaving the feeder up however, should any hummer pass thru.
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I was out before sunrise shooting the moon and Venus and my young female showed up. Unlike my summer regulars, who would come over and 'talk' to me before going to the feeder, she's very timid and hides in the bushes when she's not feeding but I'm glad she's still here. :)
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We had at least one Hummingbird show up today in the afternoon.
We have many late blooming "Rose of Sharon's" front and back yard here in here in Milton.
Napper :)
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Hey
I was sitting out front of our house five minutes ago enjoying this wonderful weather when Dog and I were visited by a female Ruby Throat Hummingbird.
It went directly to a "Rose of Sharon" quick feed and then off.
Napper:)
I counted them, we have 17 "Rose of Sharon" bushes in our yard.. most are still in full bloom
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After being out for most of the day I went to the back yard just in time to see a hummingbird fly directly over the feeder into a neighbours yard where I lost sight of it. I looked out several times until sunset but no returns so I hope it stays around and visits tomorrow. It's the first one I've seen since the morning of Sept 15. Does anyone else still have hummers hanging around? :)
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A female showed up around noon and made several visits to the feeder throughout the day.
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The Hummer that showed up Friday has left.
She made several visits to the feeder on each of the next three days but was not seen Tuesday.