donnam@venus.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell) (02/23/89)
Well, spring is here! The Hummingbirds are swarming! I don't know what else to call it but swarming. They look like a swarm of large bees! I have four separate areas that I hang feeders. Each area has at least one feed that can "sit" six birds, plus a couple of single feeders. The Hummers dive and swoop and fight all around these areas. Right now, it is very common to see six sitting and drinking while others swoop around waiting in line (though not very patiently). There are periods where eight or nine will sit: two or three sharing a single hole. Counting the actual number of Hummers is inposible, but I've estimated about 30 at a time swarm around the feeders. Most of the Hummers are Anna's Hummingbird, but I have identified one Rufous Hummingbird in one of the feeding areas. It's a male, the female be one of the Anna's. This is his second year with us. Well, if the Hummer's are here, the Oriole's can't be far behind. Donna donnam@venus.SanDiego.NCR.COM
donnam@thor.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell) (04/26/89)
The following article is from a November Sunset magazine. I'm
not sure of the year, but I would guess it was about 1986.
You can do hummingbirds a favor this month--and make
your garden a more interesting place--by putting up
feeders with a high-protein formula instead of just
sugar water.
Each bird's daily diet normally consists of insects and
about half its weight in nectar. But in the fall--and
especially during a drought--nectar-bearing flowers
start dropping off, and this valuable food source
disappears. A high-protein formula can help
hummingbirds survive; and a sugar-water diet, they may
just get weak and die.
Use a commercial blend formula, or make you own by
mixing 1 part dextrose, 1 part powdered milk, and 1 part
soy isolate (you can buy the dextrose and soy isolate at
health food stores). Add 1 teaspoon of the mix per pint
of nectar (nectar is 1 part sugar, 3 parts water); red
food coloring added to the mix will help initially to
attract hummingbirds.
If you clean out your feeder every day, you can
substitute honey for sugar. But remember that honey
water ferments after one day, and that can give
hummingbirds a fatal fungus of the tongue.
The only comments that I would make to this are: First, that I
use 1 parts sugar to 5 part water during the summer, and a 1 to 4
ration during the winter. Second, this was a November article
for the Southern California area. I would guess that the
"november"-hint would be earlier in the year in most of the U.S.
and Canada.donnam@thor.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell) (07/12/89)
The July 1989 issue of Zoonooz is filled with Hummingbirds. Lots of pictures and interesting articles: - Birds that Dazzle and Dance - Hummingbird How-Tos - The Southeastern Arizona Hummingbird Project - The Bird and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees... Zoonooz is the principal publication of the Zoological Society of San Diego. The pre-issue price is $1.00. I don't know if that is the price when requesting a single copy of a specific issue. Their address: Zoological Society of San Diego Box 271 San Diego Ca 92112 Donna donnam@palomar.SanDiego.NCR.COM