I heard a low rumbling noise. A short high-pitched squeak. A barely audible rattle. Was he back? I put my book down and looked. I couldn’t see him anywhere. While sitting comfortably on my front-porch white wicker rocker as the sun went down, I began reading again.
I realized a something flashed a few feet in front of me and saw a bird perched on my hummingbird feeder. “Oh no,” I thought, “don’t drink it. That sugar water may be spoiled.” The hummingbird turned his head side-to-side as if rejecting the cloudy liquid inside the plastic feeder.
If we could’ve had a conversation, I’d asked, “Where’ve you been?” He flitted off rattling, and squeaking. Did he say that he’d be back and he’d like fresh sugar water?
I prepared fresh food for Mr. Ruby Throated Hummingbird. One part white sugar dissolved in four parts warm water. I washed two feeders, one for our front porch and one hanging on a shepherd’s hook in the back yard, and filled them. Sure enough, Mr. Hummingbird and a friend came for breakfast and supper. And the next day and the next.
Where have my birds been all summer? I hung feeders the first of April because I’ve been told ‘scouts’ come early to identify good feeding spots. By mid-April, I’d seen several and expected, like past years, to watch hummers all summer, but a month later they were none in sight.
I didn’t give up. Through the spring and into summer, I emptied and rinsed and refilled the feeders regularly. But when Mr. Hummingbird showed up in mid-July, those feeders held week-old water. Hot weather demands almost daily cleaning and refills.
Hummingbirds are now coming to my two feeders. The general rule to know how many use a feeder is to count the most birds you see at one time and multiply by ten. I doubt twenty hummers are feeding; I’m happy to see two.
One friend said she’s seen hummers at her house all summer and as many as seven at one time, but most friends said they haven’t seen any until recently. Birdfeederhub.com offers reasons.
Maybe our hummers have been eating flower nectar or choosing more protein, and less carbohydrates. While nesting, the female gathers gnats, spiders, fruit flies, mosquitoes, and aphids for herself and her young and then returns to feeders after the babies leave the nest.
As I watch these tiny birds dart, I’m amazed. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards because their wings rotate 180º in all directions. An adult weighs about 1/8 ounce, the same as a nickel. A hummer’s nest is the size of a half dollar, and its white eggs are the size of jelly beans. Hummingbirds are the smallest migrating bird, and usually travel alone, not in a flock, up to 500 miles. When these little wonders of nature go to Central America in October, I’ll store their feeders until next April and they can come back wherever they want. Rumbling and squeaking and rattling.
Filed under: Nature, Uncategorized | Tagged: hummers, hummingbird |
Susan Writes 
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