"BIG RED" CAME FIRST

"Big Red" came first, followed two days later by "Lady Bird." Excited--no, actually I was giddy--I grabbed my camera and rushed outside. I'd almost given up hope, afraid that the violent storms we and the rest of the country had recently experienced had altered their course, or worse, had wiped out the hummingbirds migrating north. I usually hang my feeder the first of April; a hummer almost always appears the same day or the day after. This year they were two weeks late.

  

 "Big Red"

 "Big Red" posing for the camera with his right 

wing  behind his back. Note his big red band.

"Lady Bird"

 "Lady Bird and "Big Red"

For a week or so, I re-filled the one feeder every three days. Where were the rest of my hummers? Had predators gotten them? Had the turbulent weather killed them?

"Big Red" and "Lady Bird"

 Then there were four!

Then five!

My lone feeder on the deck stayed busy, needed filling once or twice a day. What did I do? I added a second feeder.

 

 "Big Red" at the first feeder.

Thrilled about my hummers, I realized I was refilling feeders each day. What to do? I hung a third feeder, this one on the front porch. 

 "Little Red"

Meet "Little Red."  If you click on the picture to enlarge, you  will see the tiny red dot on his throat. He's a male, a young one. I've gotten to know my hummers, and they know me, will come when I call them in a high-pitched voice."Little Red" has marks on his neck other than the red dot; he's the only one I have who has these markings.

  Can you find the seven hummers?

For over three weeks, 20 or more hummingbirds have lived at my feeders. I can't get a picture of all of them; they fly and flit too fast, and my camera can't catch them. If I could put all three feeders beside each other, then maybe I could get a blurry picture of hummingbird activity.

I refill my #1 deck feeder four or five times a day. Number 2 deck feeder is refilled four times each day, and front-porch feeder two to three times.

 Tools for my hummingbird food: 8-cup measuring 

cup, large pot; small pitcher for extra, funnel,

measuring cup for pouring into feeders, and feeders.

Each night I fill three feeders with sugar water and line them up on the kitchen counter ready to hang outside by 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. (I bring all feeders in every night so racoons won't destroy them.) Each night before I go to bed I measure eight cups of water in the Pyrex measuring bowl pictured above, boil it in the large pot, pour two cups of sugar in the boiling water, stir, and let cool overnight. So far I've gone through four five-pound bags of sugar. Tonight I'll open my fifth five-pound bag. Can you tell I enjoy my hummers?

Klunk

Klunk. I cringed when I heard the sound. I pushed myself away from my computer and walked outside to check. Sure enough, a bird had hit my office window. This time the victim was a male hummingbird. I frowned, walked closer. His tail feathers quivered slightly.

Maybe there's a chance, I thought, remembering that my usual rescue attempt hadn't worked for a pileated woodpecker two months ago. I fetched a basket from the screen porch, took it outside and covered the hummer. I left the basket there for an hour, then lifted it.

I heard the whir of hummer's wings in the basket, and a moment later he flew out and straight up to a tree branch. I smiled, watched hummer fly to the feeder, then I came inside the house.

A female hummer at my bird feeder last month.

I don't know why putting a basket or cardboard box over downed birds usually works, but it does. Wish it had worked for the pileated woodpecker. I looked up pileated woodpeckers in one of my bird books and learned that they usually mate for life. That makes his death even sadder. I hope his wife found another mate.