Caught him right in the act! Wonderful picture, meg. Thanks for sharing.

Well everyone: I quess your Hummers all came over to my house(;-) I have three feeders up and everytime I look outside I see at least 6 or more Hummers. I know they are supposed to be very territorial but these seem to tolerate each other most of the time. I have seen my feeders with more than one hummer feeding from it, and as many as 4 at one time. As far as a different brand of nectar, I NEVER use brand name nectars. I use plain old tap water, with equal parts sugar, brought to a slow boil. I allow it to cool then fill each feeder. I do this every 4 days. The coloring agent in most nectars is not good for the Hummers. It should only be used the first time to attract the Hummers. I have pictures of many Hummers on my feeder if anybody wants to email me. I never have figured how to post a picture on this site. Patricia(Fernzilla)

Hi Michelle, I don't live in Washington and am no expert on the matter, but I don't know that it's quite late enough yet to be considered "late in the season". Don't know whether or not it would be unusual to see the bird that you saw. I think it's terrific though that you want to contribute your sighting! I found a link to the Seattle Audubon Society, and I suspect that someone there would be able to help you. Hope that helps!~~Angie Seattle Audubon Society: http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=265

TEXOMA. Hello, this is my first time posting and I live in the Lake Texoma area. We've had hummingbirds since late March. A few months back, my sister visited me from Penna where her neighbor had nearly 80 hummingbirds (living at the base of the Allegheny National Forest, they see hummers in mid May) and gave me this simple recipe. I switched from a commercial brand to this recipe and had more hummingbirds come to our 4 feeders. We went from 8 to 15 birds. Now, of course, we are in the migration period and have even more hummingbirds coming through... currently about 25? We're refilling our 2 large feeders daily, and the two other ones every 2 days. Here in Texoma we have mostly Ruby-Throats, and a few Rufous. Oklahoma also has Black-Chin hummingbirds, but we haven't seen these here in our yard. RECIPE. ANYhoo... here is the recipe: for every 4 cups of water, add 1 cup of sugar. During migration (and times when you want to boost their intake), change it to 3 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar. An important note that I learned from the Hummingbird Society website: do not boil the sugar... bring the water (alone) to near boil, remove it from the heat and then stir in the sugar. Allow the sugar to dissolve and then cool down. Store unused portions in the refrigerator. Since it takes a while to cool down, it's efficient to make the mixture up ahead of time. Boiling the water will ensure a lower amount of bacteria growth in the sugar water. I often refill the feeders at the end of the day when there's no activity and the sugar water has had time to cool down. BACTERIA. I didn't know this until I read it at that website: it is very important to discard any sugar water that is not eaten by the end of the week in the spring, and then discarded every 2-3 days when our temperatures are high. It is to protect the birds from bacteria (the birds' long tongue gets into the sugar water). Apparently, there are researchers that have found many birds with bacteria in their lungs due to the feeders not being cleaned out with hot water/brush, etc.