http://www.hiltonpond.org/ResearchHummerVagrantMain.html Bill from hilton pond came this am to catch and band the Rufus HB. He stated that pictures taken will be on his sight late.r His address is at the top of this message. Thanks hosta for the information on getting in touch with Bill. This was such a treat. I believe we get gifts and this was my gift. Bill id him as a male Rufus HB. It is very rare to have in this area. His size seems even smaller when seen up close. Lucky me! Martha

Supposedly they are very territorial. When they first migrate, they will feed from any feeder that they can find. However once they establish their territories, the males will become very aggressive during mating season and will chase away the others. I used to have over half a dozen at the same feeder about 2 months ago, and then they started fighting more and more often with each other, eventually resulting in lesser numbers. Now I consider myself lucky if I see one or two a day but when they do arrive, they barely stay for more than a couple of seconds and immediately take off whereas I had some of them literally nest on the thing and spend almost the whole day perched on the wire above the feeder. Now, one of them actually comes to the window almost each time, stares at me for a couple of seconds and then takes off on a hurry. In June, I would stand outside refilling the feeders and have them stay 2-3 feet away from me for minutes, not bothered by me or anything else. I also have a regular bird feeder about 4 feet away from the hummer feeder, and recently I have had about a dozen Blue Jays claim that feeder as their own. They are extremely loud birds (crows, magpies and jays are all in the same family), and they may also be scaring the others away when they show up intermittently throughout the day, accompanied with real loud noise. It is almost time for the hummers to migrate, so I won't bother changing anything this year but next year, I will add more hummer feeders and a large feeder for the Jays about 50 feet away from the other two, further away into the yard.

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.