Back in Full Force

We left for a couple of days to exhibit at the Spring Bloom Festival in Bloomington, IL. We came home to find LOTS of hummers and LOTS of orioles! It's really amazing how quickly they moved back into the area. So of course Terrie had to start hand-feeding them.

We also now have at least three male Baltimore orioles and their mates, as well as more orchard orioles and their mates. The male Baltimores are just exquisite.

So the neighbor has been recruited to take care of the feeders when we go to Orchard in Bloom in Indianapolis next weekend and the Biggest Week in American Birding the following weekend. Then we'll stay home for a while and just enjoy our birds.

Hummingbird fact for today: Migrating birds of all kinds have adapted to the weather and wait for favorable winds. The ruby-throated hummingbird takes advantage of tail winds constantly. 

Handfeeding Hummmingbirds

I make one style of hummingbird feeder that utilizes small nectar tubes. There's a hole in the red rubber cap and the hummer sticks in his bill to get the nectar much as he does at nectar flowers. The small tubes don't hold a lot, but that is good because hopefully it will all get consumed before the nectar starts to go bad. We keep a soup mug of extra filled tubes in the fridge and Terrie just pops in a full one as needed.

The tubes have an added bonus - after the hummers learn that the tubes contain food, they don't much care what is holding them. Pretty much on a daily basis, Terrie will go out and move the tube-feeder so that the hummers can't see it. Then she holds a filled tube in her hand near the spot where the hummers are used to feeding from the tubes. In just a few minutes, she's hand-feeding a hummer! She took this picture herself with her phone as she was feeding them today. This is really getting up close and personal with them!

Hummingbird fact for today: Sedona, AZ, will be the location of the first hummingbird festival by The Hummingbird Society. The festival is the first weekend in August. Check it out!