For all of you who maintain hummingbird feeders please don't remove them yet. There is still a large population filtering down from the norther states and Canada. Due to the extended warm spring and summer many females had more than one nesting this year and those immatures from their second nesting are still migrating south or will be soon. I still have several immatures from a late nesting here and with the temps taking a sudden drop the feeders may help these late migrants to get far enough south that they can find more native nectar sources. Hummers can travel up to 100 miles a day and from one of the flyway routes from Quebec Province they will travel along Lake Ontario, over to Lake Erie onward to the Ohio River/Miss. River flyway and then to the Gulf coast or SW Texas so those feeders at this time of the year can help these later migrants make it to their destination.

Put less in the feeders - just a day's worth - and scrub them out daily with bleach and hot water. They can be killed by various microrganisms that live in the liquid - it's an ideal culture medium. You might not be able to see the growth, so assume it's contaminated and scrub and bleach daily. If this is too much work, hang fewer feeders so you can do a proper cleaning job. My dad had two sets of feeders: one was hanging and the other was being cleaned and refilled. He hung the fresh feeders every morning and left the old ones to soak until evening. We had a huge pitcher of "hummingboird Koolaid" in the refrigerator because he made large batches of it.

here anyway the orioles and tanagers eat the fruit best oranges and watermelon and apples. But the woodpeckers and grosbeaks do eat some. I use the regular grape jelly from the grocery store both the store brands and welch's jelly. I had several jars of homemade apricot jam in the pantry from last year and tried it and the birds enjoyed it. My orioles and tanagers have already left for the year headed south but the grosbeaks are still here and eat raisens and jelly the hummingbirds here leave out in september when it started frosting at night. I take down my necter feeders by the last of september. I was lucky this spring to have a pair of Lewis's woodpeckers fledge 4 young woodpeckers and they loved the jelly and watermelon and really devored the homemade woodpeker blocks made with sorgum and nuts and rasens and fruit bits. They have left recently but hope to see them in the spring. Our seasons here change earlier because of the higher elevations and mountains so we are probably way ahead of you in cool weather and frosts. which starts the summer birds on their way south.

Very cool!! I have three A. rupestris blooming right now, but, the h-birds seem to not have noticed them. I hear them whizz and whir above my head, but I haven't seen any working the flowers since that one I got a picture of a while back on the bee balm.