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Hummingbird Garden

hummer behavior

17 years ago

I have a window over my kitchen sink. It looks out the back yard which has a Shepard's hook with a small planter of red petunia's on one side and a hummer feeder on the other. It is right in the middle of the yard. Over the feeder is a small red round thing that kind of shields the feeder from too much sun.

Sat. evening I picked up my grandson and when we got our of the car I said "Tommy,look a hummer!" This perfect Little thing was sitting there. He didn't move. Tommy went in the house and got the recorder. He was still sitting there. He didn't fly away until Tommy got more than half way to the feeder. Within minutes he was back and stayed there for another 2 hrs. Sometimes on top of the pole and at times just sitting on the feeder.

Yesterday we had a horrible storm. Thunder that shook the ground and a downpour that was horrible. I looked out the window and THERE HE WAS SITTING ON THE FEEDER THROUGH THE WHOLE STORM. My heart broke and I wished I could get him and bring him in. Again he was there for hours. His mate comes and goes. He goes with her and comes back to sit. I am so scared he's sick b/c I've never seen this before. The kids think I'm foolish which is nothing new.

Have any of you ever seen this behavior before? I don't really know if this is a male or female but I know I'm in love.

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Comments (3)

donnann
Original Author
17 years ago
I am sorry, I read further down and saw another post on the same topic.
penny1947
17 years ago
yes this seems to be a common occurance this year. Hopefully our weather here in the northeast will become more seasonable very soon and they can get back to their normal behavior.

Penny
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I agree Vicki we need to educate as many people as we can. I am always telling people to keep their feeders in the shade. I hate to see them hanging in the blazing sun when it's 90 in the shade. I sure wouldn't drink sugar water that hung in the sun for several days, YUK. I have wrote articles for our subdivision newsletter. Every year I stress the point of NOT putting red food coloring in the feeders and I still see it all the time. I stress the fact that they need to be clean and kept in the shade and use the 4-1 ratio. I tell people the premixed stuff is full of chemicals, not to mention the garbage in red dye. I worry so much about these little guys but I can only care for the ones in my yard and try to "educate" as many people as I can. We have a friend in another state, everytime we visit, her feeders are in the sun. I don't know how many times I have asked her to please keep them in the shade. I asked if she would drink that stuff after it hung in the sun all day for several days. Does it do any good?! NO .... they are still hung in the sun every year. I just don't understand. Makes a person want to pull out their hair..LOL!
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elizabethswd
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We had many hummers several weeks ago - also had them stay very close to feeders - now we have only sporadic sightings

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