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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by SoCalHummerLady

  1. SoCalHummerLady

    We have two species of hummers'

    Very nice shot. You can often get a real rainbow of colors in diffused light, as your photo shows.
  2. SoCalHummerLady

    Happy Hummingbird Video

    Nice! Makes me want to figure out how to do slo-mo on my camera and take some video, not just stills. I liked.
  3. SoCalHummerLady

    Slow Start This Year

    I'm in coastal SoCal, and I'm usually starting to see a lot of hummers by this time, although I have two species who are here all year around. Right now, I only have one guardian Anna's male in the back yard and one guardian Allen's male in the front with very occasional interlopers who zip in...
  4. SoCalHummerLady

    Sterility of Nectar

    I'd guess flower nectar is a bit cleaner, simply because hummers will drain a flower of its juice and then it will produce new nectar. And, as Nartreb pointed out, flowers only exist for a short time. With feeders, every bird that visits is injecting a little of its own mouth bacteria into the...
  5. SoCalHummerLady

    Two hummingbird feeder questions

    I have my feeders either on iron shepherd's crooks or on iron S-hooks hanging from the house eaves or rafters over the patio. I don't know why but the ants do NOT go on the iron at all. Never had an ant problem with any of the feeders. I did have ant traps on the feeders when I first put the...
  6. SoCalHummerLady

    What happened to this Hummingbird????

    I saw a hummer (also a female) last summer that had no tail, either. It actually took me a few seconds to figure out why she looked odd. She seemed to manage to fly pretty well without tail feathers, coming up to feed at a feeder competently. She had no visible damage, just had no long tail...
  7. SoCalHummerLady

    Feeder Food

    People sometimes think it's crazy when I claim that hummers do become accustomed to and recognize people. They learn that you fill their feeders and that you are no threat to them. Birds new to your feeders will be skittish at first but doesn't take them long to decide you're cool and they'll...
  8. SoCalHummerLady

    Attracting Hummingbirds with Decoys

    I have a couple of wind chimes with hummingbirds on them. I've seen hummers check those out very cautiously, trying to see if the birds are real or not. The plastic dangling hummers on the one wind chime have lost all their original color in the weather and hummers pay no attention to them now...
  9. SoCalHummerLady

    Cleaning and sanitizing feeders

    I posted back on Jan 17, 2017, here. It's titled "cutaneous form of avian pox" and is a page back in this forum. A newbie to this forum at the time, I muddled my way to posting a couple of photos of one affected bird later in that same thread. There's not a whole lot of medical info in that...
  10. SoCalHummerLady

    Feeder Food

    As fast as you're going through nectar, I would think the purified water would be fine. It won't have the impurities, minerals and possible low levels of bacteria that tap water has. I do use our plain old reservoir water which has a lot of minerals in it so I boil my nectar to be on the safe...
  11. SoCalHummerLady

    Hummingbird nectar question

    I've read that there is some question about how much sugar the hummingbirds' little organs can handle at one time if the nectar mixture is highly sugared. I stick with the 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water, as well. If they need more energy, they will simply come back to the feeders more often, which...
  12. SoCalHummerLady

    Cleaning and sanitizing feeders

    I clean my 4 feeders with a little squirt of dish detergent in hot water every 3 days, more often if the birds empty the feeder in less time. I use a port brush and toothbrush on the ports and any small parts, a dish brush for the large parts and a bottle brush and sponge-ended feeder cleaner...
  13. SoCalHummerLady

    Low numbers this year?

    I had a real dearth of hummers in late spring - May and most of June. I usually have much lighter numbers during that time, but this seemed extraordinary compared to the last two years. I should say that in my area, I have Anna's and Allen's hummers all year around along with the occasional...
  14. SoCalHummerLady

    Feeder Food

    Interesting... I had read of the possibility that hummers might not be able to process higher amounts of sugar than the 1 to 4 ratio, that it might cause damage to their livers and kidneys, so I stick to that ratio, generally. On the other hand, if it is very hot, I will add a little extra water...
  15. SoCalHummerLady

    Regarding the nectar.

    I boil my homemade nectar then keep it in the fridge for no more than a week and a half in a tightly closed clear plastic jug. This time of year, there are so many hummers than I am going through about 7-1/2 cups of nectar in a day and a half. The jug holds about twice that, which means the...
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