A fun time of year...the Fall migration!

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

As most birders know, it begins in July. For us, we start seeing the RT Hummingbirds and Orioles 1st.

As of today, since 7/31 we have had 11 juvie male RT Hummingbirds. Yesterday was rather special with a pair of Baltimore Orioles...a female in our runner beans and honeysuckle gardens...and the male taking a refreshing bath...

What a treat!!!

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@Susan Louise Enjoy! All the hard work is paying off now. They sure seem to be enjoying their visit there in your gardens.

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@lucymo wrote:
@Susan Louise Enjoy! All the hard work is paying off now. They sure seem to be enjoying their visit there in your gardens.

Hi @lucymo !!!

Thanks

It's definitely been a lot of hard work, but worth every minute. I wish I could send a private jet to pick you up and bring you here on our peak day when we have the most hummers here at the same time. We could sit on the patio and enjoy some homemade oatmeal cookies and ice cold apple cider! I would also give you one of our hand held feeders so you can have a hummer feed from your feeder!

I just came in from being outside on the patio and # 12 arrived...another juvie male. We are still waiting to see the 1st mature male and the high pitched chitter of when we have a chase - more than one hummer here at a time...always a thrill...and a good sign the migration is ramping up here. So far all of our migrators have arrived here when the previous hummer had left already. It's just a matter of time.

This is the time of year that DH and myself literally put our lives on hold...so to speak, so we can spend hours documenting. DH goes through our security viedo cameras and I go through the pics. I also take 2 sets of notes each day and then summarize them.

Today won't be much to document since all 12 ofr the hummers have been flower feeders and none have used the feeders yet. For example, today our #11 JM left at 7:10am after 2 rounds of feeding in our gardens before leaving at dawn. Our #12 JM arrived at 6:15pm and since it is still here, I will no doubt see him in the morning before he leaves.

Some of the hummers are here just long enough to top off their tanks...so to speak...10 minutes, 1/2 an hour, an hour....all the way up to 6 days (our longest visitor). Some arrive with a full tank/belly, others of normal weight and all the way down to rail thin and really needing nourishment...

Ok, time for me to get gingerbread out of the oven and start downloading the pics I took today off of the camera. When I get a chance, I'll post a couple pics of our newest JM

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@Susan Louise wrote:
@lucymo wrote:
@Susan Louise Enjoy! All the hard work is paying off now. They sure seem to be enjoying their visit there in your gardens.
Hi @lucymo !!!
Thanks
It's definitely been a lot of hard work, but worth every minute. I wish I could send a private jet to pick you up and bring you here on our peak day when we have the most hummers here at the same time. We could sit on the patio and enjoy some homemade oatmeal cookies and ice cold apple cider! I would also give you one of our hand held feeders so you can have a hummer feed from your feeder!

I just came in from being outside on the patio and # 12 arrived...another juvie male. We are still waiting to see the 1st mature male and the high pitched chitter of when we have a chase - more than one hummer here at a time...always a thrill...and a good sign the migration is ramping up here. So far all of our migrators have arrived here when the previous hummer had left already. It's just a matter of time.

This is the time of year that DH and myself literally put our lives on hold...so to speak, so we can spend hours documenting. DH goes through our security viedo cameras and I go through the pics. I also take 2 sets of notes each day and then summarize them.

Today won't be much to document since all 12 ofr the hummers have been flower feeders and none have used the feeders yet. For example, today our #11 JM left at 7:10am after 2 rounds of feeding in our gardens before leaving at dawn. Our #12 JM arrived at 6:15pm and since it is still here, I will no doubt see him in the morning before he leaves.

Some of the hummers are here just long enough to top off their tanks...so to speak...10 minutes, 1/2 an hour, an hour....all the way up to 6 days (our longest visitor). Some arrive with a full tank/belly, others of normal weight and all the way down to rail thin and really needing nourishment...

Ok, time for me to get gingerbread out of the oven and start downloading the pics I took today off of the camera. When I get a chance, I'll post a couple pics of our newest JM

@Susan Louise What a wonderful thought of getting to watch all of the activity but since that can't happen I'll just look forward to seeing it through the eye of your camera.

This is a wonderful activity for you and DH to share as well. Nothing like a couple enjoying a project together. Enjoy the Gingerbread too.

StylishLady · ‎03-11-2010

This time of year we get only the usual cardinals, blue jays, and doves, although recently some house finches have been visiting our feeders. By December the Painted Buntings should return to provide us with additional color viewing.

Julie928 · ‎04-08-2013

@Susan Louise ~ Beautiful pictures! We usually see the orioles only in May and it's very brief. The last unusual visitor we had in the yard was a red-eyed vireo, but today I noticed a juvenile red-winged blackbird. I was just talking to a friend on the phone commenting on how many hummingbirds we've had at the feeder today. Seems every time I looked out the window there they were! I understand exactly what you mean when you say you put your lives on hold to document their comings and goings. Sometimes it's hard to pull myself away from the window when they seem to arrive one after the other! I have a journal that I write in documenting the date, type of bird, etc. It's nice to look through, especially during winter. Enjoy your beautiful birds & thank you for sharing! :-)

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@lucymo Here are 3 pics of the little fella who arrived late today...

This 1st one shows it feeding on one of our David Verity Cuphea plants on our patio...and it was 2' in front of me when I took this pic!

And then in the honeysuckle garden...

And then perched in the crabapple tree

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

And here are a couple of other fun pics of the day...

One of the squirrels having a crabapple....

And a Goldfinch removing pedals from one of the 'Zowie Yellow Flame' Zinnias...'she loves me...she loves me not...she loves me...'...LOL

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@Julie928 wrote:
@Susan Louise ~ Beautiful pictures! We usually see the orioles only in May and it's very brief. The last unusual visitor we had in the yard was a red-eyed vireo, but today I noticed a juvenile red-winged blackbird. I was just talking to a friend on the phone commenting on how many hummingbirds we've had at the feeder today. Seems every time I looked out the window there they were! I understand exactly what you mean when you say you put your lives on hold to document their comings and goings. Sometimes it's hard to pull myself away from the window when they seem to arrive one after the other! I have a journal that I write in documenting the date, type of bird, etc. It's nice to look through, especially during winter. Enjoy your beautiful birds & thank you for sharing! :-)

Hi @Julie928 !!! I feel the same way...I'm so afraid I am going to miss a new bird for our backyard or miss adding a hummer to our count...LOL

Wow! A Red-eyed Vireo...VERY cool!!! One of the last ones we had was an Indigo Bunting...that was thrilling! Our backyard bird list is currently 63 (started list in 2007)...pretty good for our small 45 x 60' backyard.

I wish a lot of us were all neighbors instead of living so far apart...would be fun to visit each other...like you and @lucymo

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@Susan Louise wrote:
@lucymo Here are 3 pics of the little fella who arrived late today...

This 1st one shows it feeding on one of our David Verity Cuphea plants on our patio...and it was 2' in front of me when I took this pic!

And then in the honeysuckle garden...

And then perched in the crabapple tree

@Susan Louise What great pictures. I'm sure you were excited to be that close. I feel like I could reach out and touch it.