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Hummer gardeners please read
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Posted by penny1947 z6 WNY (My Page) on Sat, Oct 21, 06 at 14:08
| I don't normally post on this forum but I am trying to reach as many gardeners as possible especially our hummer gardeners so I hope you will indulge me for a minute or two.
We always remind people to leave at least one feeder up over the winter if they can maintain it but since I had a female hummer arrived here after our snowstorm on Oct. 16th who won't use or doens't know how to use a feeder, it set me to thinking that a lot of people start cutting their plants back in the fall or pulling them out completely before the frost takes them.
I would like to encourage people to leave those plants alone if they are still blooming because it may provide the necessary nourishment for our late migrators who don't go to the feeders. Many of my plants were flattened by the heavy wet snow and I was very close to going out and ripping many out to tidy things up after the storm. Since the ground was so saturated my intentions were thankfully thwarted and because of it my plants including many of the flattened ones are providing the necessary food for my little late migrant. So if at all possible leave those plants that still could bloom for as long as possible. Right now I know of 3 others in the Great Lakes region beside myself who are still hosting migrant Rubythroats. These hummers will still need food sources as they head south. Please also encourage your friends, family and neighbors to leave their plants intact for our migrating birds.
Penny |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Hummer gardeners please read
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RE: Hummer gardeners please read
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| Thank you. I have always left feeders up but it never occured to me until this little hummer showed up and won't use a feeder that when possible the plants should be left up also. Penny |
RE: Hummer gardeners please read
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| I have to wonder if the hummers who are that late migrating are going to make it anyway. Aren't the very late ones most likely old or ill? All my rubythroats leave at the same time, don't see many straglers. Anyone know about this? Are the late ones most likely old or ill? |
RE: Hummer gardeners please read
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Michele,
Not all late migrants are old or infirmed birds.
Many late migrants are also late hatch juveniles which is the case of my hummer and three others that I know of personally. Mine is a late hatch female, possibly from Ontario Canada as I am right across the border. A late hatch can occur if a hummer incubates and hatches a second clutch in the same breeding season. This is more common in the south where they stay longer but it can happen up north also. Penny |
RE: Hummer gardeners please read
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| I just received a report that was sent to the hummingbird banders group by the director of the Ontario Hummingbird Project that as of Tuesday morning there have been several hummers banded in southern Ontario, Canada between Toronto and Ottawa. I didn't get the full details on age, weight etc. but they are most likely all juveniles. Penny |
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