I've enjoyed reading about your Winter Hummer and offer this thought. If it happens that your Anna's should stay for the summer and into next winter and beyond, I won't be surprised. Looking thru my journal going back to 2001, all we ever had was the summer Rufous, but for the first time in 2008 and then every winter since, we've also now had the Anna's stay year-around, including seeing the female collect nesting cotton and actually finding her nest and nestlings in 2010. Records show that Anna's have been expanding their range for many years. It is the Female Anna's that establishes the nesting territory and nesting should begin in another month or so here near North Bend, WA. If your Anna's should stick around through the summer, you might just be having your husband get used to the early morning winter feeder duty!!! Enjoy and Good Luck

Hard to say.. if only I had some really good binoculars. They do seem to like to perch on the tomato cages, as do the cardinals.. which makes it hard to clear out the garden, when they are all having such a good time in there. The reason it appeared to be drinking, is because it was hovering around a cluster of cherry toms and I watched it stick its beak in something in several different places over & over, just like when they feed from a cluster of flowers. It may have been eating bugs, but is it possible that hummers might drink juice out of ripe fruit?

I read a little about adding fruit juices and it said doing it will attract more wasps and bees to the feeder and the feeder will have to be cleaned more often,because the juice will make more bacteria grow.The white sugar water is already a treat for them.They can get other flavors from the nectar of the flowers they drink.We aren't doing them any favors by adding things that could be harmful.The iron from the molasses in brown and cane sugar can do a lot of damage to hummingbirds.

I've never seen the hummingbirds being bothered by the scrub jays in my area. Mine also get along well with the similarly sized hooded orioles, even though those make frequent visits to the sugar water feeders. They ignore the mockingbirds (I would not mind if the hummers formed a gang and chased that annoying species away!). Our hummingbird activity has even picked up lately. I'm in south OC, and although it has been hot lately, there is more of an ocean influence than a few more miles inland. If you are in a dryer, hotter area of Los Angeles, they could be moving closer to the beach. Or, as you said, they have moved on to something else that is in heavy bloom now. When it is really hot, I have seen hummingbirds drink from our garden fountains. If you don't have moving water available nearby, they might also be shifting closer to a source for water.