Seeing the posts of Anna's hummingbirds in the snow made me think of my own struggles today. We've had an immature male Anna's all fall at our yard in Yakima. As they are unusual (but not rare) over here, I wanted to try my best to keep the little guy around as we battled our snow storm over here. I was having pretty good success through most of the day, taking breaks from my office to check as the snow continued to fall. When it wasn't feeding it would go a whole 5 feet to sit in the Japanese Lace Leaf Maple next to the feeder (Maple is about 6 feet tall and broad providing some cover). Then the winds came and kept blowing snow off the roof onto the feeder, fast enough that the heat lamp couldn't keep up. At 4:00 he wasn't to be found (temps were around 20 degrees w/o wind-chill and blowing snow). I'm hoping he survived and took cover and he'll be waiting in the morning for his feeder. The rational side of my brain says, you goof that's why there aren't Anna's overwintering in Yakima, stop trying so hard. The birder in me says, look how fortunate you are to be one of the few in the Yakima Valley to still be hosting a hummer in late November. So far, the birder wins...
Guess if we had let the rational side win, few of us would be the birders we are.....

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA