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

[goeduck]

My hummingbird appetite is picking up, making food every few days now.

I recently put up security cameras with IR night vision. I have been seeing "things" bomb my cameras and I wondered if hummingbirds could see IR and were flying at night. The camera finally captured one of the culprits. I had pixel tracking turned on, so orange is two frames back and blue is one frame back. The critter is the grey/white shape top the right. Bat. Big Bat. We have little brown bats and big brown bats. This was a big brown bat. 30 fps so it was moving fast. 1/15th of a second.

 

[kenmbz]

I wonder if some bugs get attracted to the IR and the bats are taking advantage of this.
We seem to get a lot of spider webs on top of our cameras and see spider activity at night.

 

[dragoneggs]

I wonder if some bugs get attracted to the IR and the bats are taking advantage of this.

Interesting hypothesis.

 

[goeduck]

I wonder if some bugs get attracted to the IR and the bats are taking advantage of this.
We seem to get a lot of spider webs on top of our cameras and see spider activity at night.

Yes, some bugs are attracted to IR light. Bats cannot see it. Since Hummingbirds eat bugs, too bad they cannot.

With increased hummingbird activity year over year and now favorable bat habitat with the cameras, I hope to have fewer bugs.

 

[jyoutz]

We had a normal amount of hummingbirds last summer. One thing I’ve observed is once we see them in the late spring season, I can count on not having anymore hard frosts. And once they leave in the fall, warm weather is over. They are far more accurate than any weather forecasts.

 

[PILOON]

We had a normal amount of hummingbirds last summer. One thing I’ve observed is once we see them in the late spring season, I can count on not having anymore hard frosts. And once they leave in the fall, warm weather is over. They are far more accurate than any weather forecasts.

Yep, and smart little fellas, we have one that arrives early and flies up/down and sideways at the locations where we usually hang our feeders and goes from window to window to announce his/her arrival.

He kind of saying "Hey I'm back and hungry where is lunch?"

 

[sixdogs]

Man hand feeding hummingbirds. What?

 

[Wakey]

I'm always amazed by that because mine will not come anywhere near unless I am completely still

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The drought is back with a vengeance. It hasn't rained over 0.2" since the first week of January, and this is supposed to be the middle of the rainy season. Temps have been incredibly mild, 60 degrees here yesterday, with a low of about 33. The Annas are zooming around like it's mating season. I don't know how many we have, but we're going through about a pint of hummer juice a week.

 

[PILOON]

I'm always amazed by that because mine will not come anywhere near unless I am completely still

Just wear a red hat and they'll come
BUT -----best plug your ears!
Color blind they are not.

 

[goeduck]

The drought is back with a vengeance. It hasn't rained over 0.2" since the first week of January, and this is supposed to be the middle of the rainy season. Temps have been incredibly mild, 60 degrees here yesterday, with a low of about 33. The Annas are zooming around like it's mating season. I don't know how many we have, but we're going through about a pint of hummer juice a week.

I am heading towards a quart a week rate and increasing. That cold spell where I must have been one of the only places locally that kept the feeders thawed out added to my flock.

 

[dragoneggs]

I am heading towards a quart a week rate and increasing. That cold spell where I must have been one of the only places locally that kept the feeders thawed out added to my flock.

Jeez... already? What the heck are you dosing them with?

Yeah I'm guilty/lazy with frozen feeders. Obviously they move on over to your place to join your posse.

 

[goeduck]

^^

I had to refill again this morning. My sugar budget is going to take a hit this year.

 

[lman]

I always thought it got colder out there. Fortunately we've got a couple of months to go. We usually have about 20 huumers between 6 feeders. It did make it above freezing the last couple of days.

 

[Wakey]

I put my feeders out about 10 days ago and so far, no visitors. I'm about an hour east of Atlanta.

 

[goeduck]

Wheels up here. Not that we ever were on the ground here with our resident birds all winter, but we are on the upswing and the southern travelers should be here soon. At about a quart every 3 days right now, twice last year at this time. Last summer topped out at a quart a day, this year I hope to beat that.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Maybe half a dozen Annas wintered here. They seem to be doing fine. We'll keep an eye out for frozen feeders during this cold snap.

 

[sixdogs]

I can't find the 2022 migration sightings map all by itself but here's one 2/3rd of the way down in this page. There are sightings in the southern US and one or two inland so far.

https://www.hummingbird-guide.com/hummingbird-migration-map-2022.html#spring-migration-map-2022

 

[psvfd]

Have not seen any hummer birds here, need to put out feeders as it will be getting warm. Near freezing tow days ago, today will be near 80. Do not expect very much cold weather soon.

 

[oosik]

No - not yet. It's still way too early for the "little fellows" here. However - this is the FIRST year where so many Red Winged Black birds have remained over the winter. There are many pairs down in the cattails. They must be finding something to eat. I know they don't eat snow.

I feel for them - it was +8F with 15mph winds this morning. Brownie made his trip outside very short this morning. Back inside - up on the davenport - his favorite little quilt- tucked closely around him.