Search This Blog

Monday, September 26, 2011

Hummingbirds Are Migrating, Bye Bye

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Nasturtium flower

Hummingbirds are migrating and many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have left New England and are on their way south and out of the U.S. Many western hummingbirds are also migrating and will leave the country for the winter. I took this photo of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird recently in my veggie garden, sipping a nasturtium. It was magic. The hummingbird was lit in the early morning sun. Not an easy shot to get, as it was flying freely, and only hovering for seconds at the flowers. What I like about this is that it captures a wild moment in natural light. Most hummingbirds have left NH, where we live, by now. We will miss them.

We will miss on of the favorite ways we get to be with hummingbirds, and that is watching them come to our hummingbird feeders which we place within 10 feet of our chairs on the deck. We can hear the buzz of the wings and see their throats move as they lick up the nectar at about 13 licks per second. For us, hummingbirds are one of the great joys of the summer. Plant late blooming flowers, such as nasturtiums and Salvia "Lady in Red" and keep up feeders until hard frost for migrating hummingbirds.

5 comments:

Kat said...

Ours leave mid October, sometimes earlier. I will miss our little friends. We just have a couple that stick around all summer. They are fueling up for sure!!

Vivika said...

Lillian, that is a beautiful shot. Our (female) ruby throated hummers in CT are still relatively active, but I don't expect to see them much longer. I have just made two "migration story" pieces of artwork using fabric and vintage maps in the collages- you can see them on my blog vdenegrequilts.blogspot.com (scroll down a few posts). Would you be willing to let me use your photo as inspiration for another piece? vdenegre@yahoo.com

Ks_av8r said...

Even though I haven't seen any since 9/18, the feeder is showing a significant drop in food the last 2 days. It was a brutal summer here and the count was definitely down, but it ended up being a decent photo year. If interested, I posted a few on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ks_av8r/

jerry fortner said...

our birds seem to have leaft in the last couple of days in longview tx when not long ago they were fighting over the feeders. jerry longview tx Oct 3rd.

WPgirl said...

I live in southwest lower Michigan. I took my feeder down Oct 2. I hadn't seen a hummer since Sept 26 or 27th. Sad to see them go. I'll have my feeder up the beginning of May.