Anyone else have an unusually large number of hummingbirds this year?

[oosik]

This year - five pair of the Emerald green males and one pair with a rust colored male. You are right ArlyA. All the males are gone and only two females remain.

 

[goeduck]

My birds are starting to pick up activity at the end of summer and ahead of some of them migrating. Some stay throughout the winter. Either way, they are drinking more. I have my ant moats up now so they should be good to go.

 

[ArlyA]

My birds are starting to pick up activity at the end of summer and ahead of some of them migrating. Some stay throughout the winter. Either way, they are drinking more. I have my ant moats up now so they should be good to go.

What species do you have?

 

[goeduck]

What species do you have?

We have two main species, Anna's and Rufous. Annas stay year-round and any migration they do is altitudinal (up into the mountains in summer). Living on the saltwater it is cooler here, so I see them all year. Rufous are the longest distance north-south migratory hummingbird, Mexico to Alaska.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Late summer and the bloom is off the vine. The hummers are short on sugar, so are hitting the feeders again. Consumption has doubled in the last couple weeks.

 

[subby]

We usually get a few or more a day in an average year. This year we typically had 30 to 50 or more a day at or feeders. Is this normal and has anyone else had numbers increase? Think they're coming back next year?

September is the start of the migration to So. America. Depending on where you live you may se massive feeding and an accumulation of Hummers. Texas has an area where thousands accumulate for feeding. The town has several hundred feeder in place. If have steaming search humming birds as a study was made and it is quite interesting. Some Hummers are almost the size of a Robin. WE had 3 weeks of Hummers feeding, used up to 3 pints per day. Had 3 species evident.

Subby

 

[sixdogs]

Our local birds seemed to have moved south but now we're getting stragglers from the north passing through. They have a very different look than the birds that stayed here this summer.

Nature is amazing in that these birds can travel thousands of miles to migrate and then return that same distance to the same feeding spot. I can't find my car in a parking lot.

 

[dragoneggs]

I'm having problems with swarms of bees taking over the feeder and the hummers are backing off.

 

[lman]

We only have about 1/3 of what we had earlier.

 

[ultrarunner]

It's like SF airport day before Thanksgiving... all coming in fighting for a spot.

So far the Yellow Jackets have not found it...

 

[Wakey]

I'm having problems with swarms of bees taking over the feeder and the hummers are backing off.

Same here, I figured this was because my neighbor just started beekeeping but that is a half mile from me. The most I’ve seen is about 10-12, a wasp or 2 at times. In the past just an occasional wasp.

We had a banner year with the hummers but they are mostly gone now.

 

[sixdogs]

Same here, I figured this was because my neighbor just started beekeeping but that is a half mile from me. The most I’ve seen is about 10-12, a wasp or 2 at times. In the past just an occasional wasp.

We had a banner year with the hummers but they are mostly gone now.

We get our neighbor's bees from 3 or more miles away.

 

[goeduck]

The fall drinking binge is sure picking up here, good to see. The Rufous birds are heading south now from Canada and Alaska, so refueling is causing the uptick.

A few weeks ago I noticed sugar ants for the first time on one feeder since I moved here, so I put up ant moats. Yesterday when I refilled, I checked the moats for evaporation and noticed ants sitting on the center waiting for the seas to part. I expected them to have given up by now.

 

[ArlyA]

We still got Rubies here on the south shore of the BIG lake.

 

[sixdogs]

We still got Rubies here on the south shore of the BIG lake.

Good to know. In Ohio we leave the feeders out for their trip south in a few weeks.

 

[goeduck]

Almost back up to feeding a quart a day

 

[Molalla1]

Almost back up to feeding a quart a day

Wow duck you have little piggies . . . .

 

[sixdogs]

Has anyone in mid America seen any hummingbirds lately? We're always reluctant to pull down the feeders if there are stragglers out there. We've seen some over the years.

 

[Wakey]

I'm an hour east of Atlanta and just about all of them are gone. I had the best year by far in the 6 years I've lived on this property, but they have most certainly moved on.
I've been filling two feeders about half full and will continue to do so until I don't see any hummers.

 

[ArlyA]

Our numbers are really down. The only birds left are chicks at this date..