Anyone else have an unusually large number of hummingbirds this year?

[dragoneggs]

We have one type (Annas Hummingbird) that lives here year around. Fun to see them even in the snow (which we rarely get). Our mild marine climate is the reason they can survive.

Yep... year around here. Now I am in the market for a new feeder. Had one break (my fault put too hot of water in the glass), the other nice glass feeder is suffering from UV exposure. The plastic flowers are falling apart allowing bees to get in. Down to my plastic container one that is a POS for multiple reasons.

I like glass container with a big mouth for cleaning.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Yep... year around here. Now I am in the market for a new feeder. Had one break (my fault put too hot of water in the glass), the other nice glass feeder is suffering from UV exposure. The plastic flowers are falling apart allowing bees to get in. Down to my plastic container one that is a POS for multiple reasons.

I like glass container with a big mouth for cleaning.

I take mine apart as far as I can, hit them with a toothbrush and dish soap, then soak them in a bleach sanitizing solution. I change feeders when they start to get yeasty, but with good sanitation they can last several days of cool weather. I cook the syrup just a little richer in stormy weather.

 

[dragoneggs]

I cook the syrup just a little richer in stormy weather.

Me too.

 

[goeduck]

Interesting. Do their beaks get glued shut or do they go on a sugar high? Joking of course.....

 

[japody]

Haven't seen any in a week. Still have feeders out for any stragglers.

 

[dragoneggs]

Keep your feeders clean and with fresh nectar. This time of year the bees and other bugs are looking to easy places to feed and bed down. My hummers seem to yield to the other bugs if I let it go 'stale'.

 

[MoKelly]

Haven't seen any in a week. Still have feeders out for any stragglers.

We just had one today. But, they are getting more scarce.

MoKelly

 

[goeduck]

We just had one today. But, they are getting more scarce.

MoKelly

^^ A hummingbird procrastinator?

I am down around 1/2 cup a day consumption. Last winter leveled out at around 1/4 cup a day for the year long residents. So there must still be some migratory birds here but most seem to have left.

 

[goeduck]

We are going through about twice the winter feed rate this year for the resident Annas. I hope the little guys keep boozing it up.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

We are going through about twice the winter feed rate this year for the resident Annas. I hope the little guys keep boozing it up.

Temperatures here are way above normal for this time of year. It hit 66 degrees yesterday! The annas are acting like it's spring. Most years by now I have done the dawn patrol to replace frozen feeders with liquid. We haven't had a single hard frost, and it's freaking December, three weeks shy of the solstice.

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

Temperatures here are way above normal for this time of year. It hit 66 degrees yesterday! The annas are acting like it's spring. Most years by now I have done the dawn patrol to replace frozen feeders with liquid. We haven't had a single hard frost, and it's freaking December, three weeks shy of the solstice.

I was over in Myrtle Point yesterday driving rt 42 with the windows open at 67 degrees and bright sunlite.

 

[goeduck]

Friend in Walla Walla said it was 70 at their house. Crazy and scary at the same time.

 

[Oaktree]

Temperatures here are way above normal for this time of year. It hit 66 degrees yesterday! The annas are acting like it's spring. Most years by now I have done the dawn patrol to replace frozen feeders with liquid. We haven't had a single hard frost, and it's freaking December, three weeks shy of the solstice.

We had a very mild fall here, but it's been more seasonal the last 2-3 weeks, several inches of snow on the ground now. Hummingbirds long gone, not many of the usual birds either...a couple woodpeckers and a few chickadees, that's it.

 

[BoylermanCT]

If you have a cabin at the top of the Big Island in Hawaii, you are getting 12" of snow this weekend with 100 mph winds. If you live 30 miles away on the shore, it will be 75!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Another sunny day and no rain. Washington has been pretty wet, but the drought continues. 1.78" for the whole month of November, and nothing for the last 3 weeks except a couple of 0.1" days.

 

[goeduck]

I must be the only one in the area keeping feeders rotated inside/outside to keep them thawed. Outside temperature has been in the low 20s since Saturday and will be for ~a week or so. A feeder put out at 7 AM this morning was nearly empty by noon. Neighbor's birds must be all at my place.

 

[sixdogs]

I must be the only one in the area keeping feeders rotated inside/outside to keep them thawed. Outside temperature has been in the low 20s since Saturday and will be for ~a week or so. A feeder put out at 7 AM this morning was nearly empty by noon. Neighbor's birds must be all at my place.

Your attention to detail and attraction to the birds is why your feeders are so popular. Birds are at your place because that's where they get treated best.

 

[Rebeldad1]

I must be the only one in the area keeping feeders rotated inside/outside to keep them thawed. Outside temperature has been in the low 20s since Saturday and will be for ~a week or so. A feeder put out at 7 AM this morning was nearly empty by noon. Neighbor's birds must be all at my place.

doing the same on the backside of Mt Rainier. My wife is getting attacked with hungry hummers everytime she goes out with a new one

 

[goeduck]

There is always fighting but yesterday I saw one bird peck the head of another bird while the first one was feeding. There were about 4 birds on that feeder at the time, yet the feeder 10 feet away did not have any birds on it. I have seldom seen pecking or they do it too fast for me to notice.

 

[goeduck]

My feeders did not freeze last night, but I put the warm ones out anyway prior to sun-up. Quite a swarm at sunrise. I bet I have more birds next year as a result of neighbor's neglect this year.