hummoessay2

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN HUMMINGBIRD

Essay Page 2

MY HUMMINGBIRDS

By: Vicki Groze (NJ)

I got my my first ruby throat male earlier then I ever saw them before. It was the day after Easter. Gene told me he had seen one and I would get one soon. Then Misty got her first one the day after me. Misty and Gene both had a pair at their feeders. I only had one male but I did see a female for a day or two and then she left.
The rest of April and most of May, I only saw one male hummer. I was happy to have him but wondered where the female was. I have never had a female nest in my yard.
I feel this year, the hummers are new. The actions and flying isn't the pattern that I have noticed in the last few years.
Then I had my male disappear. For two weeks he was gone. I went to Misty's for a few hours and cried while watching her hummers. She had to have atleast 5-7. I saw them at her feeder near her kitchen window and then decided when I got home to move my feeder.

I made new juice and let it cool. Then left the one feeder where I like one hanging so I can see it from my kitchen door. I added another feeder to my kitchen. On the outside of my window is a wood space so I added a nail and hung this flat sided window feeder.
The very next day, I thought I saw a butterfly and it was a female hummer. I thought where have you been for so long. I missed you. She drank and watched me, then I ran out the front door to yell to my hubby in the garage. I was so excited.

He gave me a wrought-iron hook to hang it away from the window so I could see her better. I left the other feeder so she could eat. I got the hanger up and another feeder went up. She loves it and so do the wasps and bees.
She comes every day now to this feeder and squeaks so nicely as to keep me looking. I noticed she watches me sitting there. She has flown sideways to look at me and eat too. I have filmed her while she sits and eats or hovers. She watches me and I watch her.
Then one day while having lunch outside on my porch, she buzzed by and went to my little flower feeders. Of course the camera was inside, but I enjoyed watching her. She likes the orange one, not the purple one. She also likes the petunias and coreopsis. I did take a photo of her one day by the coreopsis. If my photos turn out nicely, I hope to have Misty scan them for me and add them to my album.

Now it's August and I have been watching them more and more. I have now one male and 4 female hummers and a sore neck from filming them and watching. I swear they act like pixes or fairies in my yard. It is amazing watching them fly as they are all over in a flash.
I see them sitting together fighting, squeaking, eating, hovering, watching each other, playing with butterflies and bees, chasing chickadees, looking at my neighbor's red bird feeder for other birds and just looking at red objects.

It is wonderful to have a cup of coffee and watch a hummer at my butterfly bush while waiting for a bee to get done at the feeder. I did see one female take a drink from a drop of rain water on my clothesline after a rain last week. Or she cleaned off her bill. It isn't on my film but she was cute.
When several are here at one time, they look like fairies flying around. Some go to the butterfly bush and look around and others sit on the line waiting. The red zinnia just opened and they have been going to it this week. I see them at the beebalm, sweet peas, chive flowers, coreopsis, petunias, rose of sharon flowers and the butterfly bushes. I have salvia and haven't seen them near it. It still looks pretty even if they don't use it.

MY HUMMINGBIRD BANDING DAY

By: Bill Addington (ID)

The bander took down one feeder and hung up his trap. Its a wire cage with a sliding front door. Then he put the feeder back up inside the trap. While holding a 30-foot fishing line, attached to the door, when one enters, he drops the door. Then he removes the bird from the trap, placing it into a cheesecloth bag until it is calm.
He puts a band around its leg, records the number and all data. He checks the feathers for condition and completeness, measuring the length of the wings, tail feather, and beak.
He told me that the beak has grooves all along the edges when the bird hatches, then it smoothes out over the course of the first year. By checking the number of grooves, he gets an idea of the bird's age.

Next he blew through a drinking straw to check the fat content. This is done by blowing the feathers up gently to see the body. The skin is thin enough to see through it, and he could see the breast, which is about the size of a corn kernel. The fat looks like little fat deposits all around the breast area.
Next, the bird was weighed, checking again for general condition and noting anything abnormal. The age, sex, and species was determined. Then the bander recorded the date, time, name and address of resident then painted the head with a white, water based dot, like white out (R).

There were several other hummingbirds sitting in trees watching, and a couple landed on the cage while one was inside. So apparently some of them knew not to go in.

After putting the band on he would spin them around the leg to make sure they were free to move. The bands were so tiny, that they are barely visible on the little leg. He allowed me and my grandmother to turn each bird loose. They'd just set on my hand for a while, and then zip away.

The bander finished in about an hour. It was clear at 7:30pm and about 90 degrees, but we were in the shade of some trees. The hummers were around the trap within a minute, but were fighting, so it took more like 5 minutes before one went in. After he caught one, he immediately reopened the door and actually caught the second one, half way through processing the first. Two male and one female, all juvenile black chins were banded.