I just moved to SE Alabama from Orlando a few weeks ago. I put out a feeder Monday night and 5 minutes later a hummingbird came to it!!! Couldn't believe it! I think I scared him away because I got so excited. Do you know of any nurseries in area that carry a lot of hummingbird and butterfly garden plants. I am a big gardener for both and haven't found much plant wise so far. Thanks, Tarilyn

I am sure ours are only males, they all have Ruby Red Throats. The females follow a week later. We have been feeding them for 24 years now, and it's the same pattern each year. Glad you have females North of Muskegon, you might have a male there somewhere. We are in Livingston County, across the state from you. To attract Orioles hang up an Oriole feeder, buy some plastic neon pink ribbon 1/2" at a hardware store, hang it near the feeder and put out a bowl of grape jelly. The color of the neon/pink attracts Orioles and Hummingbirds too.

I asked the ornithologist/bander, Scott Weidensaul, if I could quote from his email(s) here and he had no problem with it. spedigrees: You might be interested in his website http://www.scottweidensaul.com/hummingbirds/ which has a wealth of information on the recent movement of western hummingbirds, like the rufous, which are now beginning to appear in the East and Southeast. It sounds like you may see more of them in the next few years. In regards to ruby-throated hummingbirds that may be late to migrate, and the concerns people have as to whether to keep feeders up, he says: "I agree, looking at your photos, that the bird you have is a ruby-throat, and likely a hatch-year male based on the throat stippling. Within any population you get some birds that are programmed at the genetic level to migrate exceptionally early, and others whose instinct is to stay north as late as possible. This one could be in the latter group, or he could have something physically wrong with him that's preventing migration. Impossible to say, even sometimes examining the bird in the hand. One thing to understand is that your feeder is not somehow preventing this bird from migrating -- after all, if that were the case, we'd have evening grosbeaks and purple finches all summer at our seed feeders. I strongly urge you not to try any fancy nectar mixes -- just stick with the normal 4:1 water/white table sugar mix you use in the summer. As in summer, this bird will find plenty of insects, which comprise 60-70 percent of hummer's normal diet; there are a lot of cold-hardy midges and such even on cold days. Don't waste money on Nekton, and for the sake of the bird's health, don't try "supplementing" nectar with things like fish food and other garbage that people sometimes add to the mix. It will get a balanced diet naturally. If you're concerned about the feeder freezing up, you can easily rig a heat lamp with a 150-watt PAR/38 outdoor flood lamp in a utility hood, positioned eight or so inches to the side and above the feeder. We use that setup a lot with western hummers like rufous, Allen's and calliope that are increasingly common in the East in late fall and winter. In all likelihood he'll move on, but if he doesn't (or, more likely if he stays, can't) there's sadly not a lot you can do for him. Rubythroats lack the ability of many western species to go into deep torpor at night, but they can take temps down into the low 20s and and upper teens, and are hardier than people realize. But I'd trust his instincts to kick in eventually -- and with a full fat load from tanking up at your feeder, he'll be able to fly roughly 600 miles nonstop in about 24 hours (the same distance and time span rubythroats cover crossing the Gulf of Mexico), which can get him quickly to a warmer environment. Quite a few are now overwintering in the Carolinas, so he may even be one of those hardy birds." This is a lot to add onto a Spring Migration thread but I hope some of you will be interested. Claire

This year we had about 8-10 hummers and one lone straggler stayed until about the 2nd week in September. I live in upstate NY and it seems they show up right about the time the trees are budding and leave when we see the first signs of the leaves changing