Where have the hummers gone?

I'm not sure whether to post here or on the Texas forum or on the bird forum. I decided to do all three. I have lots of nectar producing plants in bloom but absolutely no hummingbirds. Usually, I have hummers 10 months out of the year. This year, I've seen two males who stopped for a drink and then flew north and that was months ago.

Is anyone else having a hummingbird drought? If it's not just my yard, but this whole area, does anyone know why they're gone? Hurricane covering flowering areas with sand? The terrible drought that we had over the winter and the lack of spring wildflowers? I have lots of butterflies, but haven't had a regular hummer in the yard since I took this picture last October.

I've had a pretty steady stream of hummers thru the months of April / May. Heading North. Then a lull for about a week. Now there are 2 or 3 steady customers. The numbers usually pick up around now in my area.

Well, I wasn't sure where to post, but I 'lll share what I heard on the Texas forum and the bird forum. Other people in this part of Texas said that they too don't have any hummers this year even though they usually do. I thought maybe it was only this area, but on the bird forum people chimed in from all over saying that they either didn't have them or they had a lot fewer. I'm really worried. I'm going to have to investigate further.

Dennis, I'm sure glad that you still have them. Tell them to breed like mad!

We've had fewer ever since Hurricane Katrina. Up til then, we'd have over 50 at the feeders at a time -- They moved so fast that three of us together could never count much over 50 at once.

In the years after Katrina, we've had two or three at a time, or none. During the fall rush last year, we had around 16-20 at a time.

So maybe we are having a post Ike hummer drought. I had a resident hummer during Ike. The next day, there was debris blocking both doors, well, just everywhere. I remember looking out the window and seeing my hummer flying around the debris drinking from whatever flowers she could find. She stayed though and I took the top pic in October, so she was still here a month after the hurricane. Makes sense though that they would instinctively avoid an area where they've experienced a disaster.

I've suspected that many of them perished while trying to fly south through Katrina and the bleak aftermath. I had friends on the coast who put up a feeder right after Katrina and never saw one bird. We feared they were caught in the storm or starved to death when trying to fly over that tremendous area of devastation.

So glad I opened this thread.I have the same problem here.I have only seen two males heading north, and thats it.I have planted to attract both butterflies, and hummers, as well as put out feeders.No sign of them.Mike

I'd like to report tons of hummers in Tennessee! We have literally swarms of them at all six feeders. More here than ever.

We started out with 2 or 3 males, a few females, and now we're seeing the babies......can't seem to keep the feeders full although for a few weeks we didn't see many and figured the native honeysuckle was keeping them away. We've seen many more in the past, however, enough to keep us busy here.

I'm halfway between Gulfport and Hattiesburg, and their numbers dropped off quite a bit after Katrina, but they've continued to improve. This year they're at nearly pre-Katrina level. I've been seeing what appear to be lots of babies recently, which is good!
Bugme - my hummers don't show up at the feeders much when the Japanese honeysuckle makes its first big bloom, then return after it blooms out.

Sherry

If its honeysuckle thats distracted them , I have it every where, because of fragrance.Mike

I am in the mid-atlantic and just saw my first one this morning. It was a male. It was feeding on my pestemon (jingle bells and husker's red) Didn't seem interested in any salvias or petunias. I too have alot of honeysuckle this year.

New here. Hi everyone. My son and I just started a butterfly/hummingbird garden this Spring. We have had some butterflies, but I thinks its too hot right now for the hummers. We live in South Florida, so they are pretty rare to begin with. Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone out there had any South Florida experience with hummingbirds. I have lots of plants, (firespike, firecracker, candycorn bush, firebush and coral honeysuckle) they are supposed to like, but I heard they like to winter here and head north for the summer months. Anyone out there know anything about Florida and hummingbirds? Thanks

I have seen a hummingbird about 3 or 4 times, maybe it was the same one. He was all over the autumn sage. I put out a feeder the very next morning after the first sighting and I turned around after having just hung it and there was a customer that quick! That was a few weeks ago, since then, I have not seen one in the flowers or the feeder. Normally there would be a lot of them. Glad to hear some of you have lots -- good to hear!

Here's the count folks. Yes, I wasted time with maps and green dots (where hummers have been spotted regularly) and red dots (where they have been missing all season.)

I mapped it as best I could on a map of Hurricane Ike's path. Almost all of you who said that you normally see hummers this time of year and are not seeing them at all, were in the path of Hurricane Ike. There were a few exceptions with a red dot in North Carolina, a red dot in Georgia and one in New Mexico.

Six red dots were right around me where Hurricane Ike made landfall. Two were in Illinois in the path of the storm. One in Indiana appeared to be a little south of the storm and was countered by another green report of hummers nearby.

There were three green dots near the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but I can't tell for sure if Dallas was in the path of the storm. It looks like it was right on the Western edge of it.

There were three green dots in Texas west of the storm near Austin and San Antonio.

One green dot did appear to be in the path of the storm in Missouri although on the eastern edge of the storm.

All the other green dots (14) were in areas unaffected by Hurricane Ike (eastern US).

I'm not a scientist, and there really wasn't enough data to know for sure, but I'm inclined to believe that the hurricane had something to do with this year's hummer drought. Some hummers who usually live in these areas or migrate on that path may have been killed. Others may have decided to take another route. Maybe when they came across the gulf and saw that Galveston and Boliver etc. were wiped out, they went further west or east. Of course, it could be some other reason all together!

Thanks for the info, elphaba. Very interesting.

Yes it is. Mike

We had hummingbirds here in Lutz (north Tampa), Fl last fall. They disappeared for the winter and came back about three weeks ago as soon as the porterweed started blooming. I have many plants, no feeders, and the only thing I ever see the hummingbirds eat is porterweed. They seem to hang out in the oak trees in my yard when they're not eating. Today I staked out the porterweed and managed to get a picture! Seriously, I sat inside my car in the driveway since I park in front of the porterweed anyway. Then, I waited. I usually see the hummingbird when I leave in the morning around 6:45 and again when I come home around 5:00. This weekend while gardening I saw it in the middle of the day as well. Last year was the first year I ever saw hummingbirds in my yard, but it was also the first year I had the porterweed.

Melanie

Hmmm, Florida does stick a pin in my theory b/c sooo many hurricanes have gone through there in recent years. In fact, Faye kind of hung out in Florida last year.

Glad you've got some though Melanie. My Porter's Weed is usually a favorite of the hummers too and its blooming like crazy, but no hummers at all. I thought of you today as I was trying to take butterfly pics with my new camera. This shot was kind of OK, but I really need to read some more of that thick, thick manual!

I have a large Mimosa tree that had lots of hummers all over it the past couple of years while it was in bloom. Not this year. I've only seen one on an orange flower in the yard so far this year. I thought it rather strange. Even my feeders are bare this year, where last year they stayed quite busy. I'm hoping they will come back soon.

I'm on the coast in the Florida panhandle.

This message was edited Jun 9, 2009 7:42 AM

After I responded to Melanie's post, I checked on Hurricane Fay's path. The only place in Florida that Fay skipped around was Tampa! However, Florida is pretty narrow, so I doubt any part of Florida was really spared. The panhandle really got whacked though. Again, I don't really know if hurricanes have anything to do with it. I'm just looking for a reason why they just vanished.

I still only have seen one hummer coming to the garden and it does not come everyday. I know I had seen more last year before now. Something is happening. We have been having an unsual amount rain here this season. Has anyone else?

Ooh, the other day I was getting in my car and I saw two hummingbirds at the same time. I figured there was more than one but you can't know for sure until you seem them together. I don't think they were friends though because the one chased the other one to the big oak on the east side of the property and then went back to the porterweed. The one hummingbird always returns to the oak on the west side of the house so I think I have two hummingbirds set up in different trees. I see one pretty much every morning when I leave for work. Dad sees them when he goes to get the paper. I see them sometimes when I come home, but they're far more active in the morning it seems.

I still can't believe how fast they are. I was worried because we have a group of Red-Shouldered Hawks that live in the neighborhood (they nest in our trees sometimes). I thought they might try to eat the hummingbirds but now I see that they have no hope of catching one. My eyes can barely keep up with them! They remind me of how people describe UFOs flying - the way they hover, change direction on a dime, go from zero to sixty in nothing flat, etc. Oh, and I like how they squeak when they move around - it's cute!

Melanie

I think maybe there all here in California. I have lots of them. There even out in the heat. It was 108 yesterday and the hummers were still in my garden. They love my plants.
Greg

Seems to me they're in Ohio. They're constantly on my feeder and my flowers. I plant for them.

Karen

This was from last year.

I'll second what echinaceamaniac said - we certainly have hummers in Tennessee! We've only got two feeders, and keeping them full is a full-time job!

Still zip here, but glad you've got them. Hopefully, I'll get to enjoy them when they head south.

You lucky folks who have a lot of them. I've only had 3 sightings this season. I have 2 feeders (& a bunch of red stuff) that I only have to change to keep the nectar
fresh! Whaaa.

I had one or two earlier in the spring then nothing until this past weekend, when I saw one hummer on three different occasions. Last year I had one or two who fed at my feeders all summer.

I saw one while the penstemon was blooming and haven't seen any since.

I have four feeders up and they do come to them on occassion, but would rather feed on the Turks Cap, Rose of Sharon, and Monarda. But we are not carrying a camera when we see them. Dh has gotten some good pics on the feeders....let me see if I can find one.

Here is one taken about a week ago. This one must be really immature. It doesn't look like the ruby throats we normally get as far as color. The shape and habit is like theirs however.

My feeder hasn't had one visitor that I've seen. I usually have 4-5 regulars but none this year. I am about 90 miles north of Houston

I have many plants with flowers that the hummer skips and goes straight to the bottle feeder which is a pain in the neck to clean. I have a hummzinger aspect feeder hanging less than ten feet away from the bottle feeder that it does not even fly by

Take the bottle feeder down and hang the Hummzinger in it's place. They will get the message after a few days. I quit using all my ones that were hard to clean, that makes it work!

Thanks I will try that.
Rama

i have 6 hummers when i usually have tons. 2 males and 4 females two of which i think are faimly not aggressive torward each other. the lone female i think is just looking for food. we have the audobon society up the street and they have feeders too and about 6 hummers and seen some in other areas like the nursery but not as many.

I agree about the Humzinger feeder, so easy to clean. I put it in the dishwasher as recommended.

Karen

I hope you've all had them return by now. We're seeing the latest brood now and, judging by the numbers (being hard to count......LOL) there must be at least a dozen. The deck sounds like a beehive early in the a.m. and in the evenings when the aerial acrobats really get started........filling the feeder daily. There are two more feeders in separate locations that seem to be "guarded" by one male.

I have had a pair, or what I think is a pair.I may have seen three to day, and they were really attenden the feeders.