Monday, August 19, 2013

Bird Changes

For a while there we had around 20 hummingbirds a day coming to our feeders. Tweaking the formula for nectar appears to have have a real effect. It seems though that the rufous and calliope hummingbirds have left for Mexico and we just have a few broad-tailed hanging around.

I have been finding that it is quite a challenge to set up shots where I can get the lighting right to get their feathers to light up.

Some chickadees returned last week. I have neighbors who claim they have black-capped chickadees that stay around all summer, but ours seem to leave in early June and don't return until about now. I assumed they moved to higher altitudes in the mountains, but maybe they just go visit our neighbors.

This fellow is in one of the locust trees off the deck, but he looks like he is lost in the jungle.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is your tweaked formula?
I've been using the standard four parts water to one part sugar for a few years, but have never had more than two hummers around at once.

Thanks,
Rodney

Peculiar said...

+1 on wanting to know your formula. We've got know shortage of hummers here, lots of aerial warfare, but it'd be interesting to see if your tweak makes a difference.

Reid Farmer said...

I had always mixed a 3:1 formula - I have always seen that or 4:1 in guides. We would get a few hummers, but I don't think we ever had more than 6-8 here in Colorado.

The feeder ran out in early July while I was out of town. I have always tended to it, so Connie didn't know the formula and mixed it 1:1. Since then we have been overrun with birds and we continued the "rich" mix. Things were getting so contentious I had to put up a second feeder. Up until they started migrating in the last week, I was re-filling a feeder each day.

My daughter has accused me of running a crack house for hummingbirds. They sure seem to like it.