Hummingbirds in the Mountains

We just returned from a week in the mountains (Granby, CO). The first morning we saw hummingbirds feeding on the wildflowers near our unit. Our friends needed another feeder for their home in Illinois, so we went straight to the hardware store and bought a feeder, and to the grocery store for a five-pound bag of sugar. We used a strong sugar mix to attract them. We had birds feeding right away, and that night there were eleven birds trying to feed at our three-hole feeder. More squabbling went on than feeding, so the next morning we bought another feeder, and our friends bought a window-mount feeder with two holes, so we had eight holes available.

Each night we had more birds. The last evening we thought we counted twenty (but you really can't count that many). It was routine to have five or six birds feeding, and a few times all eight holes were busy at once. It was our evening entertainment every evening.

Hummingbird feeders now will be part of our mountain vacation kit. We recommended that the activity director buy some feeders to loan out to guests.

For the Audubon members, we saw mostly rufous, with a few broadtails, and there was just one male, readily identifiable by his wing whistle even before he was visible. The males migrate early; do you suppose most of the males are already gone?

Wow, Granby. I don't think you can get there from here, or at least we haven't been able to.

There were always a lot of hummingbirds when we used to visit that neck of the woods in June.

We have a bunch here this summer, normally a half-dozen at the two feeders out front and about that many working the flowers in the front and back.

We have them working the flower boxes on the Margaritaville dock, too.

I have one of my nature-cams aimed at the area directly out back now, and when I review it for critters I always see birds at the birdbath and in the bushes.

Not a crittter yet, though. I'm hoping to video a common breed in this area, a bald-headed, red-faced, pot-bellied grass burner. Of course, they are hard to find during the day. They are mostly nocturnal, and like to wander around away from their own domicile. They tend to congregate in small packs of two or three. They seem to be related to the cockroach because when you have a light on at night, they seem to be gone.

I have read that it is not good for the hummingbirds to put a high concentration of sugar in your feeders. I think you are supposed to use a ratio of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. The red commercial foods are not good for them either, because they have red dye in them. Also, hummingbirds can't just live on pure sugar water, they need the nutrients found in flowers, so if they are just eating a high-sugar solution because it's sweeter than the real thing, eventually they will be nutritionally deficient.

Yes, you gradually decrease the concentration to 1 in 4, which is actually still sweeter than most nectar.

Nectar is just sucrose and water, too. Hummers get their protein from insects, which they mostly find in flowers, although they can catch them in other ways. They like spiders, too. They fed most ravenously just at dusk and (at our guests expense) at first light. At dusk to fuel up for the night and at first light to jump start their little motors. I presume they were making much use of the wildflowers during most of the day. The stats on hummingbirds are amazing. They weigh much less than an ounce, and they consume an unbelievable number of calories each day.

So what do you read about migration? Have the males started to leave the high country already? I was going to take a feeder to Vail in late September and to Pagosa Springs in early October. I presume I'm kidding myself, with those plans?

If you are ever on the Texas Gulf coast during September, try to go to the Rockport, Texas area if you want to see hummingbirds. During September thousands and thousands of hummingbirds migrate through Rockport every year. It is their jumping off point before they head across the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course everybody and every business has feeders out and there will be tens of hummingbirds at each feeder. It's really something to behold.

The first time I ever saw a hummingbird I was just a child and I thought it was a giant bee with a very long stinger and I was scared to death. I went running into the house screaming for my mama. She calmly explained it was a bird not a bee and would not sting me.

Now I love to watch them. Saw some up in the mountains Sunday but also see them out my back yard from time to time. I don't have a feeder--yet.

My daughter's BF is from Scotland and I guess they don't have hummingbirds there??? Anyway, he was out in the yard and he very nervously told my daughter about a really big flying bug with a stinger that he saw - it was a hummingbird! He was very relieved!

Hummingbird Moth

I forgot to mention that we also saw a hummingbird moth, a large moth that feeds the same way that hummingbirds do. Its wings beat more slowly, it's a little less acrobatic, and we never saw it at the feeder, but it was active at a potted flower a couple of evenings.

Our male guest was a botanist and a birder, so he was inordinately interested in the species of hummingbirds and moth. It added to our enjoyment.

He was excited because one morning he identified a plant that has no clorophyll, it feeds on decaying plant material, like a fungus. I think he called it a pine drop, or pine (something).

All things considered, I can recomment a botanist as a timeshare guest.