Subject: [Tweeters] Another Hummingbird Question
Date: Nov 30 00:18:16 2010
From: Barry Ulman - ubarry at qwest.net


Hi Tweeters,

I know it's generally recommended that you change the sugar-water in
your hummingbird feeder every 3 to 5 days, at least in the summer. With
(typical) winter temperatures approaching a refrigerator, I was
wondering if it still is necessary to stick to that rule. Any opinions?

To continue the saga of my hummingbird feeders, I took the advice of
many and moved one of my feeders to the other side of the house. I
didn't expect the hummers to discover the new location for a while, for
I thought the new location was rather inconspicuous. Boy, was I wrong!
I didn't have the relocated feeder up for five minutes, and an adult
female Anna's came to the feeder. It turned out that Attilla the (male)
Hummer preferred the feeder I moved around to the new location. So
eventually I switched feeders, so now Attilla comes to his preferred
feeder in its original location just outside the kitchen, while the
others can feed on the relocated feeder outside the hall. Now that the
cold snap is over, the male doesn't seem to guard the kitchen feeder so
jealously, and occasionally one of the others gets to come in and feed
on that one. I think all my hummingbirds (maybe four) managed to
survive last week's severe weather, much to my delight; their
resilience is amazing.

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.