Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hummer Fall Migration has Begun

The Rufous showed up on Monday, followed by the Broadtails that were around in late spring. I think that most of the Black-chinneds are locals, but we have had at least two Magnificents, and another Plain-capped Star Throat female to join the two mated pairs that spent the summer with us.

Lots of hummingbird aggression around the feeders--makes it hard to identify some of the plainer ones as no one sits still very long. Nonetheless, I get a lot of satisfaction from feeding the little boogers and enjoy their antics. Plus, it reminds me that fall and hunting seasons are getting closer!

Yup, been seeing a couple of Rufous here competing with the resident Black-chins. Also saw a new hatchling today perched on my deck. Probably a Black-chin, also. When I see the birds of the year I know my season is coming to an end.

We didn't even get any hummers in any amount until July. I'd see one or two in June and went a week without seeing any. They've been hitting my feeders heavy in the past two weeks. They should start topping off their "tanks" in Sept/October. I love my hummers.

My hummers barely showed up. Worst showing that I can remember.

I'll continue to feed, but damn.

Most of the adult Rufous and Bkackchinned have left my area of BC in the last week,still plenty of youngsters around.We only had a few Calliopes this year and over all number seem to be down. Monashee

Interesting, I didn't know they started flying south so early. We have a couple here already (Ruby Throated).

The Blackchin's are pretty much all I have but I have boo-coo hummies hitting my two feeders. They drain my feeders to the tune of two quarts every three or four days.
I've stopped feeding thema couple of times, for a few days,just to encourage them to head north.
I love watching them. They take feeding very seriously and fight like they mean it.

One result of our drought (which seems to be taking a breather this July) is that we apparently did not have a lot nectar feeding bats around. In a normal summer, I expect to have all the feeders cleaned out overnight at least 4-6 times. So far this year, it hasn't happened, but we're not out of the woods yet...

This spring, we barely had any along the coast at my place. Last fall i would have 30 of them little suckers fighting at our feeders. Last fall during a calm spell, my wife and i was trout fishing at the beach in matagorda texas, we was watching swarms of hummingbirds heading offshore. It was unreal!

Yep, there's quite a few birds moving through. Really, after they breed they have no reason to hang around unless they molt before fall migration (as opposed to those species which moult after migration)

If you're familiar with purple martins (those swallows that breed in multi-room houses), some adults begin heading south right after breeding, which means the beginning of June in San Antonio. So southern-breeding martins heading south meet Canadian members of that same species heading north.

The same early migration applies to many warbler species, one, the Cerulean Warbler, heading out in late June from our Northeastern States beginning in late June to go back to the Andean Cloud Forests in South America.

A bunch of Arctic-breeding shorebirds start moving back south in early July, mostly adult females in those species that leave the young in care of the male. Down here in Texas, southbound migrant shorebirds are already common by July 4th.

Pretty much the norm among hummingbirds for the adult males, which play no role in raising young, to head out first, in the Mountain West these movements are concentrated along high mountain corridors as opposed to surrounding deserts. Hold a feeder at arm's length in the Sacramento Mountains of NM about now and you'll likely have thirty hummingbirds swarming around before you can even hang it up.

Some of the increase you'll be seeing at your feeders though may be young of the year (look like females), even without migration, you'll have about three times as many hummers in late summer after the young are out and about.

Unless its concentrated along mountain chains like hummers out West, fall migration in summer tends to go mostly unnoticed: Its spread out over a longer period of time and the birds themselves tend to migrate slower, with stops and layovers en route.

Birdwatcher

We didn't see any at all until this week. Then had a couple for a few days hitting the flowers. And now they seem to be gone again.
Oh well.

Black-chins are mostly gone by August, or so its believed (similarity with ruby-throat females and young make it hard to tell), by the second half of August you'll be seeing mostly ruby-throats from Canada and our Mid-West.

Feed 'em all ya want, it is NOT the food supply or lack thereof that makes them migrate, but their own internal clock.

If they waited until they were HUNGRY to migrate they'd never make it. OTOH, if you feed 'em in times like this drought you just make tip the scales in favor of a few so that they make it rather than starving to death on the journey, as many do.

Birdwatcher

Yep, we are in a valley between the Animas Mountains, which are a northern extension of the Sierra Madre Occidental to the east and the Chiricahuas to the west. My friends who have ranch headquarters up in the mountains go through pretty impressive amounts of sugar starting about now. Many of them buy 50-lb bags in Agua Prieta when they have reason to be in Douglas. They grumble, but it keeps their wives happy...