The hummingbirds have brought us no end of enjoyment this summer as they visit our cottage feeder.\u00a0 The buzz of their wings beating at 60-80 beats per second announcing their arrival, hovering with incredible agility,\u00a0 constantly adjusting their position with precision as the feeder sways in the breeze, tongues\u00a0darting into the feeder ports to lap up sugar water mixed at a ratio of 1:4 to replicate the concentration of nectar in flowers.<\/p>\n
This is a juvenile male ruby-throated hummingbird raised nearby among the dense conifer trees surrounding the cottage. Adult hummers were active at the feeder early in July, then seemed absent for a period.\u00a0 Now it is the juveniles – at least three of them – getting their last licks in before heading south.\u00a0 Adults have already left on migration, males go first followed by females.\u00a0 Juveniles are the last to go.\u00a0 They all go it alone – most ending up in Mexico and Central America – and will likely follow that same route each year after.\u00a0 They have to put on a lot of weight before departure to sustain them in their journey, and this little guy has been fueling up at the feeder from about 6:30 a.m. until nearly sunset for several days now.\u00a0 They will follow the flowers south through climates warmer than ours, finally making a 20 hour non-stop, 500km flight over the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
Here’s an article<\/a> documenting the recent northward expansion of the wintering range of ruby-throats into the southern US.<\/p>\n Keeping feeders of any kind up won’t keep birds from migrating, but will benefit those who are passing through our yards on their routes south.<\/p>\n You can contribute to citizen science by sending in your own hummingbird sightings (and other species such as the monarch butterfly) to Journey North at https:\/\/www.learner.org\/jnorth\/humm\/index.html<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/outdooredguys.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/unnamed-file.jpg\")
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