2013 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

Here are a few more of the juvenile birds

Pmutalic2000. Amazing pics from someone who now knows the difficulty in photographing these little kamikazes!!! Impressive. Well done.

nutsaboutnature posted "And one of the naturalists studying them said, "I think the hummingbird vocabulary is a hundred percent swear words". LOL on that one!!

rouxcrew and pmutalik2000, Great pics!

Got a few to add from this morning ( Have at least 6 hummers buzzing around today).....

Beautiful pics Praveen and IRIS!!

Great that your hummer activity has increased. Ours has as well.

Until a few days ago we had mostly females and juvies since most of the adult males had already left. Now we've gotten more adult males again and they've claimed a couple of the feeders. I don't know how many hummers we have right now, but it's enough that we see them constantly chasing each other all over the yard so it might be quite a few.

I am loving these pictures. I really like Iris's juvie with just the few spots. So detailed.

Praveen, did you use flash to get the wings stopped like that? Amazing.

Beclu, yes I did use the flash to stop the wings. I use the flash at it's minimum power setting, this makes the flash really fast.

Couple pictures from last week at my Mom's. She has about a dozen birds. I have one, maybe two moving through now.

Also, two from my bird cam. I was hoping I could get a capture of them at the new (potted) trumpet vine.

Cute, Marna!! The last one, especially. Such a "perfect" little pose.

Maybe we can talk rouxcrew into sharing a few hummers with you. Whatcha think, rouxcrew?

haha. send them over here!!!

There is a guy on the IL Bird listserv in southern illinois that talks about going through GALLONS of water a day. He also has a bander come at this time of year and banded 68 the other day. Can't even imagine.

That would be us as well. Right now I am going through a gallon a day, buying 10# of sugar a week. That will go up as we go through September. I currently have five quart feeders up and am refilling once a day. One I filled at daylight is now almost empty.
I certainly have plenty to share, although I suspect they would immediately head back to my place. LOL

What a treat this thread is. We don't have hummingbirds over here, so I so enjoy seeing all of yours. What a laugh about the 100% swear words.

Rouxcrew, Amazing pictures! I can't even imagine getting multiple birds in the same photo. And going thru a gallon a day! Wow. Thank you for the spectacular pictures.

Wow, they banded 68 hummers in one day? OMG!

Ooh...Love those pics, rouxcrew!!

Margaret, I tend to sometimes forget that hummers are only in the Americas. Oh well...we have hummers, but you have about a million birds I've never seen in my life! It's so much fun sharing pics!

Yah, 68 in one day. I went to a banding session in Lemont a couple of years ago and they were up over 100 banded that day. I adopted one for myself, my Mom and Margaret. We're supposed to get a notice if they are ever recaptured or found.

Here's a cutie from this morning. As far as I can tell, I still only have two buzzing around here.

Such a shame. I never received any notification that my adopted hummer had returned. Migration can be brutal.

Me neither. BUT, that does not mean it is not still living, It might just not have been re-caught.

Thwack! (Sound of me hitting myself on the forehead with heel of hand). What was I THINKING! I guess I had a picture of all these little banded hummers lining up to be caught so their bands could be examined.

There is a lot of activity at the feeders now as the birds get ready to head back South (we are in MA, northeastern US) and I suspect in a couple of weeks they will be gone. In the meantime here is the activity from today, almost all the birds are juveniles.

Just two more images.

Margaret...that's a funny picture...now you've got me laughing!

On the U.S. "Interstate Highways" you'll occasionally see exits to the "Truck Scales" where large commercial trucks go to get weighed (you probably have the same thing in your country). During busy times there may be a long line of trucks on the off-ramp to the scales. That's what I pictured when I read your post...only instead of trucks...they were hummingbirds, returning from their long migration and waiting to have their bands inspected!

Haaaa. That is a great pictorial analogy, nuts.

I'd have to be pretty hungry to go into a contraption like this.

Can you just imagine banding one of those tiny little legs? It'd be like banding a piece of cotton.

you forget how small they are when you are just looking at pictures, but in someone's hand…

The real first wave has hit. Three days ago I bought ten pounds of sugar and I will be buying another ten tomorrow. Don't know if the right picture is here but I had over twenty birds around one feeder. I had taken down one to bleach and refill and one little male decided that he could defend the chain from all interlopers. I have a tumbleweed hung from a rafter, memento from a trip, and they are starting to perch like ornaments on a tree.
The close up was just above my head, not more than a foot away. It was cool to be that close.

Good grief that is awesome. "MY Chain!"

Okay, I admit it was a tough lunch crowd, but the dinner crowd was intense.

Good Lord, that amazing!

EGADS! I can only imagine the sound!

That is truly amazing.

That must be amazing to watch so many of them at one time! How long will you be seeing these large groups? I have several here, but nothing like that!

Here's a couple from today...

The migration usually runs through late October, but since they started early this year who knows? I know that they stay at good feeding grounds for a while to get ready for the long jaunt to Mexico, but it is hard to tell who stays and who goes. Me, I just work here filling up feeders and trying to stay ahead. I have been running errands all day and expect to find more than one feeder empty or close to it. Then I will have to make a new gallon of water and start all over.
One thing, the sugar water doesn't stay around long enough to go bad.

Here is one from this morning and a new game: How many hummers can you spot?

Perhaps you should just hang a 5G bucket of sugar water. and put those little feeding tube stoppers in it. You'll be RICH with that invention.

Margaret, did you hear that? RICH!

All five feeders were empty, so I ran in and quickly made TWO gallons of sugar water. Five quarts went out all the while they cussed me, and a couple didn't wait for me to hang them, they started while I was fishing for the hook.
Dave found it funny that my cheese pot was being called into service for the water but it is the only one big enough, 12 qt. he won't think it funny when I buy a 25# bag of sugar next.
I really cried when we moved out to the new farm. I had spent years at the old one cultivating friendly plants and had a good amount of hummers. I didn't have a single one here for more than four years, and now I have tons so I can't complain.

Right on!

Rouxcrew, that is absolutely astounding!!! I've been attempting to follow the activity here for the last couple of days even though I didn't have time to post.

Thanks for allowing all of us to get a glimpse of all that crazyness! I can only imagine what it's like with hundreds of hummers all SWEARING at once!!!

Have you ever had any banders out to your farm? It would seem the perfect opportunity.

BTW, thanks for the banding pics, Marna!! That would have to be truly fascinating.

You know, until I saw the photos of banding I never thought about it. I wouldn't know who to contact or if they would want to in this area with migration in full tilt. Since they are just passing through, would the info be important?

I think the early morning brings in the new birds, although it is quieter, they are much more hungry, willing to sit next to one another to drink. This feeder was full at dawn which is around 7, and this is at 10. I sat and watched trying to get a pic of every station full. Funny how almost all will be taken and in comes a trouble maker scattering the group.
It is rare that any come to any of my flowers now, but there is the occasional hard core bird.

I bet Mrs_Ed could direct you if you wanted to find out about banding. I would think they'd be very interested since some of the reasons they band is to find out where the birds go, where they end up and which routes they take.

Up here they like to go to a place like yours to make it worth their while. I'm sure they band there because I know they band Ruby Throats in central america in the winter.
http://www.hbrcnet.org/hummerbanders.htm

And then there is this Texas survey, which could be fun for you:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/hummingbird_roundup/