Hummer update

[Howieh]

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.?

[Bill & Jaye]

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.

[Howieh]

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.

[Bill & Jaye]

We are south of Cambridge Ont.
Thanks for the note

[Howieh]

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.

[mr.sharp-photo]

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

[Howieh]

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.

[mr.sharp-photo]

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.

[Howieh]

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?

[mr.sharp-photo]

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.

[Howieh]

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

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....).

[Howieh]

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.

[mr.sharp-photo]

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

[Howieh]

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.

[Bill & Jaye]

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.