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Slow Start This Year (1 Viewer)

A

agmccall

Member
Hi All

We have had a slow start this year.

I remember about 5 years ago we saw our first hummingbird here. When we moved here we never thought we would see any. We are on a small mountain about 2300 elevation. Anyway, we went out and bought a few feeders and finished that year with about 4 hummers.

Every year since our little population has grown. They usually show up around late April thru mid May and leave about the time the leaves start to change. Last year when they left we have about 13 that we counted at one time.

Usually when they come they will spend a lot of time at the feeders, we have them spaced around the house. This year I only see 3, 2 females and 1 male.

We have had some odd weather this year. it went from the mid 70's one day to Snowstorm the next. it has been like this pretty much everywhere.

I am wondering if the weather might have done something to the migration schedule or if we lost some along the way by unexpected cold. Our species is Ruby Throated.

Just wondering your thoughts

Thanks

al
 
agmccall said:
Hi All

We have had a slow start this year.

I remember about 5 years ago we saw our first hummingbird here. When we moved here we never thought we would see any. We are on a small mountain about 2300 elevation. Anyway, we went out and bought a few feeders and finished that year with about 4 hummers.

Every year since our little population has grown. They usually show up around late April thru mid May and leave about the time the leaves start to change. Last year when they left we have about 13 that we counted at one time.

Usually when they come they will spend a lot of time at the feeders, we have them spaced around the house. This year I only see 3, 2 females and 1 male.

We have had some odd weather this year. it went from the mid 70's one day to Snowstorm the next. it has been like this pretty much everywhere.

I am wondering if the weather might have done something to the migration schedule or if we lost some along the way by unexpected cold. Our species is Ruby Throated.

Just wondering your thoughts

Thanks

al
Click to expand...
I think the entire country has had some odd weather this year, so I'm guessing that is a factor all across the country. I suggested to my wife that we might see snow on the 4th of July this year. We're having a slow start here as well. it's kind of annoying.
 
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 and away again.
It is slow compared to previous years at this time, but I'm putting it down to having had twice as much winter rainfall as normal and there being tons of natural food sources blooming. But, I will add that we've had weird weather all this year, too, including it being cold and rainy at times in the last couple of weeks.
 
I live in Northern California west of Mt Shasta, and so far have about 20% of normal. In June I usually have about 10 feeders scattered around the perimeter of the house and average 40-50 Anna’s and Rufous per day.
 
Right now it looks like we have about 4 permanent, way down from the last few years. I wonder if the late season cold we had this year forced them to nest farther south than normal. We actually had some cold and snow in May

Al
 
Not a good year. I mentioned earlier that I saw, maybe the same Hummer two days in a row, back in early May, and I haven't seen a Hummer since. Really strange. We're in a four story apartment complex on the fourth floor, with neighbors with Hummer feeders, and no one is seeing Hummers this year. By now, we should all be seeing a lot of them. OTOH, this is the mildest Spring/Summer I've seen in a long time. Rain almost every other day, and highs in the mid 70s. Not normal for Kansas City. I think we're running short on the Global Warming thing. Maybe they're all staying south of us?
 
late response but we finished the year with maybe 6 or 8 total, 3 or 4 were probably this years young and they left early even though the weather was nice all through September.

Hoping for a better year next year

al
 
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