Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Anna's Hummingbirds
Date: Feb 22 23:12:37 2006
From: Wilson Cady - gorgebirds at juno.com


I have been waiting for someone to point out that our feeding
hummingbirds is not the method in which we are maintaining an "artificial
population" of Anna's Hummingbirds in the Northwest. As Guy L. Monty
mentioned the native people altered the environment through burning to
increase their food supply but no one has brought up modern man's
altering of the habitat through the planting of ornamental shrubs and
flowers. There are many of these plants that bloom during the winter and
provide a source of nectar and attract insects which can be utilized by
the hummers. Even though I live at the 1,200' level at the west end of
the Columbia Gorge in the Sunset magazine's garden Zone 3, I have Winter
Jasmine and "Pink Dawn" Viburnum bodantense that has been in continuous
bloom since October. But despite that Anna's Hummingbird is the least
common of the four species of hummers that visit our property.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA