PMS Run Amock or The Hummingbird From Hell!!

05 Sep 03 | Bert

[bert]

.....The solution to feeder competition is to hang lots of feeders.....

That's for next season. I'm wondering if the same Hummers return to the same spaces?

[Just another Joe]

I'm wondering if the same Hummers return to the same spaces?

Just like most migrating birds, a lot of them do.

[LionsDaughter]

bert, nice post. I really enjoy watching the backyard microecosystems that happen in North America and you have really captured it. Thanks you.

Just another Joe, this bumblebee hummingbird, is it just a hair bigger than a true bumblebee? I've seen those. At first I thought it was some sort of bug, but I couldn't find it in any of the bug books I looked in and the tail was driving me nuts. Then I saw it again and realized it was a hummingbird! They move really fast, but I'd like to get a good look at one someday.

[Scenic Sounds]

I love it, bert!

You've taken the time to really know your kingdom!! ;-)

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

I don't know. I think that's a real possibility, though, they birds seem to know where to look for the feeders when they come back.

There's nothing like that first hummer of the season, though, you're out in the garden, and suddenly you get 'buzzed', and you run inside and start boiling water. LOL!

[Tijeras_Slim]

You haven't seen hummer wars until you've seen the Rufous hummingbird. They're small and once they arrive they stake out the feeders and drive away all the Black Chinned, Broadtails, and Calliope's we have here in the NM mountains.

We've had as many as 30 hummers competing for two feeders, but you can walk in amongst them and they don't crash into you. Frequently, you can get them to land on your hand.

Local record is a guy in the Jemez mountains that goes through 20 pounds of sugar a day prior to migration.

A local author wrote, "If rufous were as big as hawks, people couldn't go outside".

[duckbutt]

Deej - I KNOW you would like this - - given your propensity to be attacked by the little Hummers.........

[forsnax5]

I'm wondering if the same Hummers return to the same spaces?

Yes, they will come back to the same feeder location, year after year -- even when the feeder is gone.

I live in Colorado, and we have bears that frequent our neighborhood. This means that we have to bring the hummingbird feeders in at night, or the bears will pull them down.

I'm up at dawn during the week, and I hang the feeder as I go out to get the paper. On the weekends, I don't get up quite that early, and the hummingbirds are very annoyed by the time I get around to delivering their breakfast. Often, there are a half dozen of them flying back and forth through the empty space where the feeder would hang.

This year, we only have a single feeder. In prior years, we've had as many as four hanging under a second-story deck (the deck is being replaced this year, so the hummingbirds are having to make do with less). In the last week of August and the first two weeks of September, the PMS crowd would number 60 to 80 birds in the morning (very difficult to count those little suckers!), and they could empty all four feeders by noon.

All summer, we've seen hummingbirds fly to the spots where those four feeders hung last year and hover, looking around for their rightful offerings in vain, then speeding off. The odd thing is not only is the feeder missing, but the deck isn't there either!

[hopespringseternal]

Funny, ours don't come back every year, it is actually hit or miss. Since we live in a neighborhood, they may just be finding another feeder some years.

[MaeWest]

So very small and so very bad.

I always knew there was something I liked about hummingbirds

[forsnax5]

Funny, ours don't come back every year, it is actually hit or miss.

We have rather large numbers, so the only way we can tell that we have returnees is by their seeking the feeders at last year's locations.

If you have few or none returning, perhaps the ones you saw the prior year didn't survive the migration.

:(

[Old Professer]

All I can do is hope she has a peasant trip to Florida.

She'll be going coach, I take it.

[bert]

You just can't slip things by. They'll get you every time.

[Podkayne]

My PMS hummer actually drove off a amall nuthatch which was flying 3 ft near the feeder. Talk about agressive.

[EggsAckley]

I live on 26 secluded acres in the redwoods and we have hundreds of hummers and thousands of the little "house wrens", as they are called here. They provide year-round entertainment here, as there is no need for them to migrate. I fully understand your enjoyment of these creatures. Of course, then there's the peacocks and the wild turkeys. Now THAT'S "wild life!"

Happy weekend to you.

[Just another Joe]

Just another Joe, this bumblebee hummingbird, is it just a hair bigger than a true bumblebee?

Not bigger by a whole lot. We were standing on our front porch and this little guy was about three feet away for about 15 or 20 seconds. I thought when I first saw it that it was the biggest bumblebee I had ever seen. The he stopped at a flower and I saw the beek. Knew it was a hummingbird but I had just never seen one marked like that.

[LionsDaughter]

Yes! Those are the ones! The first time I spotted one was about three years ago, but it wasn't around long and I didn't get a good look. The last time I saw one was earlier this summer, out in my backyard. It was just flying around, but I actually got to watch for a few moments. Those hummers are so cool, but I've only seen one the two times.