Lifestyles
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THE WILDSIDE: Hummingbirds are welcome visitors
This summer of 2008, there were concerns that hummingbirds were being seen in our region in fewer numbers than in the past. In fact, Steve Stedman, the bird expert for the upper Cumberland from Cookeville, sent out an inquiry on his bird e-mail list for information about hummingbird sightings. The feedback was mixed, but the Ed LeGrand family in Cumberland County thought they’d had more than last year.
At the home of Ginger Cass off Browntown Rd., there have also been more hummingbirds than ever feeding at her three feeders. I heard about her success from Jim McCullough, who has a new camera, and went over to Ginger’s house to see what he could catch on film. He was so amazed that he went back three times.
Ginger makes her own sugar water, the usual ratio of one cup of sugar to four cups of water. She puts a quart into each feeder every morning, early, and sometimes has to refill them in the afternoon.
“They seem to like it better when I put out the cold sugar water that I keep in glass jars in the refrigerator,” Ginger says. She also filters the water. I asked her how much sugar she had used this summer.
“85 pounds so far. I’m going to have to go to Sam’s Club and get another 25 pound bag of sugar.”
The feeders are nothing fancy, she says, “I use $5 plastic feeders from Wal-Mart because they are easier to clean.” She does this every three days using a toothbrush and a tiny bit of bleach and hot water.
I asked her where she hangs her feeders. “I hang them from the branches of Bradford Pear trees — right on the tree limbs.” Squirrels and raccoons do not bother the feeders, she says. The only flowers she has in her yard are some morning glories and red gladiolas, so the feeders are the birds’ prime targets. There is usually a bee hanging around the feeders, and usually birds and bees avoid contact, though on one occasion, “a bee went after a hummer,” Ginger told me. I asked her how many hummers she has seen at any one time, and she thought about 25 – 30, and can easily feed 18 at a time. They arrive as soon as it gets light and the last one leaves just before dark. “I can hear their chirping noise in the trees.”
While she was traveling this summer, her brother dutifully filled the feeders each day, so they didn’t notice she was gone. Ginger acknowledges it is “a little work. But I don’t mind. I’ll miss them when they are gone.” She keeps track of their arrival, and this year she put her feeders out April 6 and saw her first bird on the 9th. She’ll leave her feeders up until two weeks after the last hummingbird leaves.
Steve Stedman’s latest e-mail on hummingbirds says: “The last Ruby-throats usually linger into late September or even to mid-October. Please report the last date on which you see a RTHU. If you still see hummers in late October, be suspicious about their species, as that is when the western vagrants are likely to turn up.”
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