Tonight (actually, this early a.m.) is another peak night. You'll see more activity in the pre-dawn hours. I did see some swoosh by when I went out at around 2-ish. Hey, I had to make a potty run, anyway! It was too cloudy here in the early evening to see the show with Venus, Mars, Saturn and the Moon all having a 'chat' close together in the western sky, darn it. I wonder what or who they talk about when they all meet up like that? ;-)

The latest (December 5, 2008) UMass Landscape Message is out, with nothing definitive about this year's winter moth emergence. "Cape Cod Region (Barnstable).....Small flights of winter moths were observed in the Marstons Mills area on November 17 and November 25. ......... Southeast Region (Hanson) ...... Similar to last year, Winter moths began to emerge around November 8th. Unlike last year, we saw large numbers of moths on several evenings especially the evenings of Nov. 25, 26 and Dec.1. We are banding trees to estimate a winter moth egg count but in general, I would venture to say based on observation, that winter moths appear to be emerging in larger numbers then last fall. Winter moths should continue to emerge into December, usually when temperatures are above freezing. Winter moths begin to emerge at dusk and are active at night. ...... Metro West (Waltham) ....... Starting to see the adult Winter Moths flying at night." Claire

Hello everyone. Thanks for all the responses. It is kind of fun to hear how everyone plans to store there trees. My dear sweet Laura, I do have a light set up. I have my 600 watt HPS light. It works very well for me but because it produces such intense light, and HEAT(the heat being the spider mite magnet), I do run into issues with the darn S.M. This year I plan on being very selective with what I keep under my light. This year it will be my ETLD, Rainbow 36(by the way has yours bloomed yet?) my gorgeous purple noid from that was gifted to me from Sonia, and the trees that are blooming...JJ Orange, and also Divine and Psycho since they are nicely budded. Divine is the furthest behind as the inflos are barely an inch long. Plumeria are tropical trees, but I have to say, they are a lot hardier than what some people think. When I turned on the weather before going to bed at 2:00 am, we were at 44 degrees. This morning at 5:00am we hit 38! OUCH!!! We are warming up now, but it need to stay a head of the game, I know that some of my trees will grow more leaves if I decide to leave them out longer than this weekend, which if may decide to do. Last fall, I waited to the last possible minute. We had an actual freeze and I had to bring all my trees, plus all my other tropical plants and fruit trees in all in one night. The people that have been a part of this forum for a few years know that I have had several back surgeries now, and I just cannot risk hurting myself, so I really am trying to make it easier on myself. Last year it took me about 2 hours to haul everything in, and my poor back felt like it was ready to go on strike. I actually was laid up the whole next day, and part of the following day! Andrew

Jim I am so glad you have had some memorable hummer experiences this year. The migration is still in full swing and I have three here right now. My last adult male left on Sept 1st. and the last adult female departed about a week ago. I have at least one juvenile male and 2 juvenile females but with the juvies until they start getting some of their adult plumage it is difficult to tell the males from the females. Most of my adult birds this year were strictly feeder birds. They were definitely fast food junkies but once the juvies came on the scene both feeders and flowers were in high use. I have an old clothesline that we cut done to be used in a smaller area for the hummers and they loved perching by the door first thing in the morning after they had breakfast watching and waiting and several would greet me when I walked out the door. If I was replaceing a feeder with a fresh one I always had one come right up to the feeder as I was hanging it back up. They also liked to perch on that line and watch me while I mowed the grass or collected flower seeds. Several times they flew up to me when I was removing dead flower stalks to check out what I was doing. A couple of times I had a female come in so close that I could feel the breeze from her wing flapping against my cheek. Remember to keep those feeders fresh especially when we have had the hot dry temps we had this summer. I never leave a feeder over two days as the nectar will start to ferment and if they do drink it, they can get sick. Often times they will just abandon the feeder. Even if you think all of your hummers have gone for the season, please consider leaving those feeders up for at least 2-3 weeks after your last siting as there are still quite a few migrants north of us that are yet to head south. There are large swarms still in Mich and Wisc. and quite a few swarms still over in Ontario from what I understand. If you can maintain at least one feeder until we get hard freezing temps please consider doing so. There are more and more reports of out of territory migrants showing up all the time. There is a Green-breated Mango Hummingbird that has shown up in Wisconsin whose most northern natural range is Mexico. Here is a picture of the Green-Breasted Mango. There have been Rufous in Ontario, Rufous and Calliopes in Pa. so you never know, a stray, out of range migrant could just as easily show up in NY. They are just the most amazing little creatures and I am so glad to see the growing interest in hummers and including hummer plants in gardens Penny