Ruby Throated Hummingbird – The Worried Bird

Hummingbirds: Remembrance of Summer

Winter brings us birds that do not nest in our area. Some are just passing through; others are regular winter visitors that come for our bird feeders. We do miss our summer residents, especially the hummingbirds. This year our first hummer arrived on March 20^th, later than usual. We enjoyed their antics (and wars) all summer. In October we start keeping careful notes to track our last sighting for the year which is usually sometime before the 14^th. It is our practice to leave the feeders up until the end of the month which turned out to be a good thing this year. After a gap of several days we had a sudden flurry of visitors, 2 or 3 at a time with our last sighting on October 28^th. Bad weather somewhere must have delayed this last group but we were glad to see them for whatever reason.

This hummingbird was a summer resident in a surprisingly peaceful mood.

They Are Back: March 22, 2018

We look forward to their return every spring

The lighting is not the best in this picture as it was fairly late in the evening. We had put the feeder out about a week before. We kept on checking until suddenly he was there on the feeder. This hummingbird (along with a 2nd one we saw the next day) are probably on their way further north.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird: September 20, 1017

We miss them when they are on their southern vacation.