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2014 update-24F and hummingbird still here...again.

salsalady

salsalady

eXtreme Business
I didn't know where to post this, and this forum seems as good as any...

11/11/2012, it's been below freezing the last few nights, and barely over freezing during the day. No snow yet. And we have a little hummingbird still hanging around. We saw her a yesterday afternoon. She'd been hitting up the empty feeder bottle, so I put out a fresh one.

This morning, the bottle was frozen at 24F. So out went another fresh bottle of juice. She showed up about 10:30am, and finally settled down for a couple good feeds this afternoon.


Is she lost? Will she go eventually? Should we keep a bottle of heated juice out for her all winter? Try to capture her and over-winter in a cage???????


Any ideas?
 
No on the cage idea.

There's not much you can do SL. she is probably old, and couldn't make the trip.

She probably won't make it. as sad as it is to say... :(
 
didn't think about the "old girl" scenario. It's just strange that in 13 years, we've never seen one here this late. You'd think there'd of been a late one before....


Will keep the juice out for her anyway.
 
i just brought in my hummingbird feeders and they were frozen solid. the creatures know what to do, you can help by putting out fresh juice early in the morning .... um, 10am is like afternooon..., their metabolism is very fast and once they understand when winter will truly set in, they will do what hummingbirds do in winter time. but do not think you can capture the bird and have it survive.

quick story: neighbour's cat caught a hummingbird, neighbours knew i raise finches and thought i would be the best place for it. i put the thing in my hospital cage and it started to come to life in a couple of hours. buzzing around the cage, trying to get out. i thought i was doing it a favour. keeping it in the cage to let it regenerate. by morning it was dead. when the little guy tried to get out of the cage, i should have just released it, into the wild.... i thought i was doing the right thing.... apparently i did the wrong thing! yes, i put in sugar water but once a critter gets its second wind, it has to be let go.

leave the little critter alone! it knows what to do.
 
Something to consider - if that kind is supposed to migrate, you may be keeping it from doing its thing by feeding it.
 
thanks BC and geeme....I have thought of both of those scenarios and wondering if feeding would keep her here. Being as it's so late in the season, and all the others are gone, and we haven't put out a fresh bottle in weeks, I don't thinking feeding has KEPT her here. But since she is here....what to do..... I dunno...

Just wondering why she's here lo late. Someone forwarded an article from the Spokane paper about a hummingbird that was fed over the winter and in the spring...flew away....

Oh, and I was up at 6:30-ish and saw the frozen juice. I brought in the frozen bottle and placed out a fresh bottle. She showed around 10:30, flitting rather skittish. Finally she settled down around 3:00 for a good feed, and came back a couple times before dark for good feeds.
 
Ide say keep feeding it. If you feed them every year it is likely one of the same birds that come every year (i dunno if that is myth or fact). The bird knows when its time to go being fed or not. If it is staying it is for a reason I am sure. I doubt the possibility of a rogue humming bird but nothing is impossible.
 
We've had feeders out every year, especially in the early season. And yes, when they show up, they know exactly where to fly to looking for juice, swooping up to where the feeders would usually be hanging. We've always felt it's the same (or at least the next generation) birds returning since they know where the juice was last year, and that's where they're looking for it.




I set out the feeder on a marble hot plate...we'll see how it works-
 
Remember what it was like last winter? Here in Wisconsin where we normally get out on the ice to do fishing in the middle of December there was no ice; and then in January there was only a little ice pushed onto the shore of the bay. February finally there was ice but the fleet of ore haulers who normally came to refit were breaking up the ice. One idiot (an import from Chicago) had to be rescued twice off the ice because a crack opened up.

Could be that we are getting warmer?---maybe even warm enough for humming birds to feed all winter.

I seriously doubt that the bird is geriatric or confused; I am thinking it is just another indication of mans heating up the Earth so we will eventually cook in our own smoke stack.

But the heating pad would help with the bird feeding and they need quick feed because they need a lot of energy quick and the rose bushes are all gone.
 
We have have been feeding humming birds for over 25 years in NC. The only species in our area is the ruby throat.
They start to arrive in the second week of March and depart by the third week of October. Exactly!
Over the last 10 years numerous hummers have been observed overwintering throughout NC and further north..
More unusual is that they are Western Anna's humming birds not Ruby throats!
Folks lucky enough to observe them near their homes keep feeders stocked through the winter!
Western hummingbirds in the East--set your feeders out!!

FWIW ... hummers can not survive in captivity, even if they have a continuing source of nectar. They require a constant diet of protein sourced from tiny insects, mites and spiders. It is also illegal to capture or confine them.
 
well, our little lady showed up at 8:00 this morning. I'd hung out a fresh bottle right above the hot plate bottle about 6:30. She only went to the hanging bottle, but I'll stage it down over the next few days to get her onto the hot plate bottle.

The hot plate juice was 67F this morning when air temp was 31F.

She came in several times today, and settled in for some good feeds. Both feeders out tonight on the hot plate and I'll hand one a little lower in the AM.
 
this post may merge, but she was here at 7am today. I was out most of the day, so I couldn't keep track of the akshun. The day was fairly warm and sunny, melting a lot of the snow. On a job, I was swatting skeeters...(Are you kidding me?!?! SKEETERS in NOVEMBER!!!) and yet they were.... I saw a couple bugs in the sun today, so I hope our little sugar-furnace snacked on a few.


Jars all set for tomorrow. And will prolly get have to get back into the 3-day wash routine.
 
Very interesting, all of our hummers are gone even though it has not gotten that cold, there has been several nights between Oct. and Nov. that went below freezing. As it keep coming back to the feeder just by its self puts weight behind the too old to make the migration suggestion and it probably lost its mate and is just trying to go on the best it can while waiting for mother nature to clain it. It may have found a warm spot some where, where it can stay above freezing. Humming birds can slow their heart rate down to near zero and for the life of them look dead, then in the morning, they very slowly begin to worm up and their heart beat increases to where it can move, after which it gets to the point that it flies off to find some food. Being that its just one little bird I would go ahead and feed it and enjoy the time you have watching it.
 
When reading this thread, I realized I didn't finish up the last repot from that first bird.  She hung out for 4-5 days and the last couple days she really hit the juice hard.  Almost constantly drinking, and then she was gone.
 
 
2013 we didn't have any stragglers.
 
 
2014 and here we go again.  Temps have been below freezing for a few weeks.  As before, the feeder was still hanging up but frozen solid.  About a week ago, this little guy showed up hitting on the feeder.  So I quickly put out a fresh feeder.
IMG_3846.JPG

 
I figured he'd hit it for a few days and then off-you-go~~~
but a week later.....he's still here....
IMG_3864.JPG

 
There was no snow the first couple days, now it's snow and freezing rain. 
 
I've done some reading up on overwintering birds.  Most say to keep a feeder out and defrosted, and let the birds do what they will.  So that's what we're going to do.   Bring it in at night and back out in the morning.  This morning, I went to put the feeder out at about 6:30 this morning, just barely getting light and he was already out there looking for breakfast!  This could be a loooong winter....
 
I might have to look at getting the hot plate back out there to keep the juice defrosted and a timer for the light.  I don't want to have to worry about waking up late and the little guy not getting his goods on time. 
 
My biggest worry is our new kitten who is quite interested in birds!  She doesn't go out a lot in this cold weather so when she is out, we keep very close tabs on her. 
 
 
Hummingbirds will stay in some cold climates through the winter if they have a reliable food source. My neighbors back in Portland fed them, and a whole bunch learned to stick around year round. They had to make sure to keep the feeders full and unfrozen through winter so they wouldn't starve.
 
hottoddy- that seems to be what other forums are saying. 
 
Here's from just a few minutes ago-
IMG_3882.JPG

IMG_3883.JPG

 
With the flood light right next to the feeder, there is some heat on the one side of the feeder (not superhot! but enough to feel like it makes a difference) and a little cooler on the off-side.  Sheesh!  It's the Methow Hummingbird BurgerKing!  "Have it your way..."   :lol:
 
does anyone know about contacting the Audobon and legal banders?  There's talk of this on the Bird forums.  People who are licensed to live trap/band birds....
 
Our power is flickering right now, grid power might be out soon. 
 
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