I've been meaning to include the number of feeders in the yard in my posts. I currently have 12 feeders up - 6 in the front yard and 6 in the back. In past years, I've added feeders based on the number of resident birds in the yard. Considering that most of the birds seen in August and September are migrants, I haven't increased my feeder numbers until October or November. Last year, it was the arrival of the male Rufous that drove the big increase in feeders. 

 

This year, I decided to put out extra feeders before the residents settled in. I'm thinking this may be at least part of the reason for the numbers of hummers I'm seeing every day. It may be a little more work and inconvenience but it'll be worth it if it means more hummers, especially if they remain into the winter. 

Last winter, a videographer from Canada spent a few days in my yard filming the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds for footage to be used in a public service announcement for Canadian TV. The results can be viewed from the Hinterland Who's Who WebPage at:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp

From the "Video and Sound Clips Library" scroll down to the "Search for clips" and select "Ruby-throated Hummingbird" from the dropdown. Click "Submit". Then select "Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 60 seconds—Youth". Select a video format and your download speed and then "view clip".

It's still a typical September in the yard. There are busy times as well as slow times but at least a couple of hummers can usually be found within a short time. Six to ten hummers can be found on most days with a little time spent in the yard. Songbird migration remains slow with a couple of recent visits by Blackburnian Warblers and a Baltimore Oriole but the variety and numbers of birds at any given time remains low.

There has been a big increase in activity in the yard in the past couple of days. I've seen at least 4 new young birds this morning as well as adult males regularly in three areas of the yard. Unfortunately, I have to leave all of this and get to work.

 

At one point when I was watching the female Rufous sitting quietly on a black cherry limb, another hummer started harassing her. I was surprised to see a rufous tail fanned out on the harasser. They quietly took turns performing territorial displays and slow motion chases around the seed feeding area in the yard and then eventually one left  and the other settled back in on her perch. I hate to see the  Rufous being harassed in fear of her leaving but then I realized that I don't know which is which. Do I want a new bird in the yard or the old one? A new one would be a new data point but the old one would be returning data and an old friend. Shortly afterwards, a hummer came in and tried to chase the Rufous off but this bird was a Ruby-throat. Was it an early morning, lack of sleep, hallucination? Or, did I actually see a second Rufous?