I saw my first hummer of the summer/fall season. It was a young bird, most likely post-breeding dispersal from a local brood. True migration begins when we start seeing adult males.

Please stop by my page at http://www.floridahummingbirds.net/ . It has been created in hopes of being able to encourage more to learn about the different species that may be encountered in Florida as well as to improve the reporting of hummingbirds in the state.

 

A very important part of this site is a forum at: http://floridahummingbirds.proboards.com/ . Please check it out. I encourage all to register with the site as ther are some benefits to being logged in if you post. I'm not requiring it in hopes of making it as easy as possible for everyone so that we don't miss any reports.

 

Whether you log in or not, please report any sightings to the forum. The success of the forum depends on everyone. I can create the floridahummingbirds.net pages but I can not post enough sightings to make it work.

 

Thank you for your input.

 

Steve Backes

The last of the banded hummingbirds from this past winter departed on May 4th. A couple of healthy males were seen on the 2nd and the one with the damaged bill was last seen on the 3rd.

 

The yard is fairly dead as far as bird life goes so I've stopped feeding the squirrels. It's time to rebuild after the fallen tree and freeze damage.

 

I will try to be prompt when announcing the arrival of new birds in the summer. I expect to be seeing them by late June to early July. It has been as late as the last week of July before I've seen them here.

I've started a new Website at http://floridahummingbirds.net .

 

It's still in the development stages but I have gone live with it hoping to begin accumulating data. I'm hoping to get enough traffic on the site from people with hummingbirds, that will add comments to the blog regarding their numbers and approximate location, to begin to build a database of where and when we can expect to see hummingbirds. These comments in turn will provide others the opportunity to see where birds are being seen and possibly encourage them towards further efforts to attract hummingbirds.

 

I've also opened the door to asking other questions that in time may be answered by other visitors to the site. I know about the birds in my area and what they like but I can't really speak for other areas of the state. Hopefully, we'll be able to attract other "local" experts to advise on their locations.

 

It's also got a photo album which I would like to use to share everyone's photos. I'm in the process of developing a "Species" page and need decent photos submitted of each species in each of their plumages to be incuded on this page. Other plans are being evaluated.

 

Please stop by the site and give me your thoughts. Post them under the appropriate post or e-mail them to me at backes1@verizon.net

In addition to the hummingbirds in the yard this year, we finished off with two surpises. The first, the female Painted Bunting, stayed around until mid-April. The second bird was a male Painted Bunting who showed on April 15th, returning to the feeder all day but then was not seen again. A number of Indigo Buntings have visited the feeders throughout the spring.

Busy times and sick times have resulted in over a month without posts. There has actually been lots to post about. This one is to announce the departure of the two Rufous.

 

The old female, believed to be the one banded in 2003, left on March 15th, the same day she was last seen the past two years. She didn't have any long absences prior to this day. There were maybe a day or two when I had little time to watch for her that she went unseen but they weren't even days in a row.

 

The other female Rufous was last seen on March 20th, the day before the first day of spring.

 

May they have safe migrations, successful summers and come back again in August for another winter season.

Many of the hummingbirds are still around but the activity has slowed considerably. I must not be seeing any new birds as the ones that are here seem to be getting along. The two Rufous are still here. I saw the female Painted Bunting yesterday along with a male Indigo Bunting but have not seen them today. A chickadee was seen and heard a couple of days ago.

Activity has slowed over the past two weeks. Some of the regulars appear to have departed as temperatures warmed up last week while the others are still here but much less noticeable. I can't necessarily walk the yard and find the 13+ regulars although if I walk it enough in one day, I will find most of them. I believe it's a lack of "other" birds that has them comfortable and not in defensive mode. A number of the "regular perches" have changed as leaves have dropped after the last frost which also makes itr hard to find them if they're perching. They seem to spend more time higher in the oaks. 

 

The only non-hummer bird of note in the yard has been a female Painted Bunting that's been around for the past 4 days.

Doreen went to Lakeland first to band the Allen's and had it in the trap within 15 seconds of setting the trap. The homeonwer wanted to video the process but the bird was trapped before he could get the camera ready.

Not as much luck here. We were unable to coax the Rufous into the trap in 45 minutes of trying. We did manage to catch 5 Ruby-throateds during that time. We moved the trap to the front yard and caught 5 more Ruby-throateds. Ten Ruby-throateds for the day.

Added to these ten birds, I still have the two Rufous around along with the other 4 Ruby-throateds banded in the past two months for 16 banded birds in my yard. There are still at least one unbanded female Archilochus, a couple of young Ruby-throats and probably at least one adult male Ruby-throat. 

On Wednesday, I counted at least 20 different individual hummingbirds using my feeders. The past couple of days have produced at least 13 birds typically perched in sites easily observed. A couple of others have been spotted attempting to use feeders but not sitting in the yard.

 

The male Allen's is still being seen in Lakeland so Doreen will be coming back to Florida to band soon. Hopefully, we'll get a better look at a couple of my birds that may be Black-chinneds. 

 

A possible Western Tanager was reported yesterday by a neighbor so I'll be watching closely for it. I've put out cut oranges in hopes of attracting to an area where it can be easily viewed.