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Monday, July 09, 2007

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Lots of folks have responded to our last post questioning whether Ruby-throated Hummingbird numbers are down. If you would like to answer, you can post a comment on the blog entry right below this one.
Makes us wonder how global climate change will affect hummingbirds. Here, in NH, we had a very cold spring with some major snow storms. We lost our bluebirds. Many of our flowers were delayed in blooming, but now have caught up. We still see only one or two male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at our feeders, where ordinarily, we would have more hummers, including females. We'll see how August goes, when we see many hummers here on migration including males, females and immatures. We will keep you posted.

Photo © Lillian Stokes, 2007

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We live in rural central New Jersey and began putting out feeders in order to catch the migration in early spring. We had a few early hummers that moved on. Maintaining the feeders for about a month, we did not see a bird for several weeks. Now it seems that they are back up in ordinary numbers.

Anonymous said...

Here in central Pennsylvania my hummingbird numbers have been down. I saw some during migration, since then, I have seen very few at my feeder.
Just this week they have returned, on July 15 I saw them at my canna, fuscia and petunias. Seems to prefer the natural nectar.

Anonymous said...

In rural SC I seem to have as many ruby-throated hummingbirds as ever. I am feeding 4 cups of nectar daily. I have a question. Why are the hummingbirds feeding at my window feeder so heavily. There are 3 other feeders available, but the one on a 6X6 picture window is the favorite and will empty fastest every time.

Janie said...

I live in Bixby, Oklahoma and have just started seeing hummers within the last 2 weeks. Like others I am not sure if I am seeing the same male over and over. I am just seeing one at a time. I have only seen one female.

Janie