It's 40 degrees and I just looked out the window saw a Humming Bird looking back at me.
In the thirteen years I've lived here this is the earliest I've seen one.
They usually start showing up in mid-late May.
Guess I better get a couple of feeders out tomorrow.

I had a bumper crop last year....bout wore me ragged keeping four feeders going.
God help me if this early arrival is a sign that I'm in for even more of the little free loaders this year.

Fieldgrade, what do you feed the hummers?

We have one species year round here, Annas. Rufuses just showed up a few weeks ago. Lots of activity at the feeders. Have to refill them every other day.

Thats so funny how much earlier things are up there this year(the guy in another post talking of killdeere nesting) we are a lot further south and they haven't started yet and only had one hummer pass through so far ???

Sugar water.

I was going through 10#'s of sugar a week last year.
Best price I can find is $11 for a fifteen pound bag so it can get a little expensive but the entertainment is worth it.

One checker last summer asked me if I was making moonshine when I showed up at the checkout with 5 bags. I laughed and said "I wish but I'm just feeding Hummers" she said "too bad, if you were making shine I was going to ask you out on a date"....

You coudda lied, just a bit? First date, bird watching?

Of course, your wife, watching you, and date----,

Damn!

So that's where all mine went last year!

Glad they were well fed.

You need some bees if you think your sugar purchases are high.

Well....it's on.
I hung a feeder this afternoon...a couple hours later I was setting on the deck drinking a beer and sure enough the first free loader showed up.
Once they find it they'll be back.
Guess I better put sugar on my shopping list.

Had a couple here now after the big flood was over!!

Had a couple here now after the big flood was over!! Poor little guys don't fly too well when the rain drops are bigger than they are !!

They're like street urchins neighbor. They know where you are now. They pass that info out while they're down south for the winter.

"Hey dudes, there's this Field Grade guy up in N ID, no need to go any further or go hunting around the forest for flowers and crap. The dude puts out GALLONS of sweet stuff every week. Don't worry, he has a truck he can put lots of sugar in. He may even be happy and get a date out of the deal if he's smart."

"He acts grumpy about how hard it is to feed us, but he kinda likes having us around. Dude even likes owls, flying squirrels, and other critters! (just don't be a furbearer, he likes them fine too, but he likes them drying on a frame)"

Geno

LOL.....funny but all true.
I gather up buckets of Wal Nuts for the squirrels even though they raid my bird feeders and bought corn for the Rabbits after they killed off the Junipers I've raised from birth and half killed all my roses this winter yet I prefer predators that have done me no harm what so ever with their skin off.

Weird Huh....

FieldGrade, ever check out the party affiliation of those critters? They sound like democrats to me, but then, watch us conservatives run to an open house with free food!