Bird Watching: An informal poll about Ruby-throat Hummingbirds, 1 by hummer_girl

hummer_girl wrote:
I live in Suburban/Town. Actually, South St. Louis County. There are about 400 houses in the subdivision. My lot isn't large, but I pack a lot of hummer friendly plants into the space I have to work with. When I started planting for hummers I did so on a small scale, and once they started hanging around, I started researching and planting more attractors to bring them in! The most I have ever seen at one time is 4, so I figure there are probably more in the area, but since they don't wear name tags I have no idea how many individuals I actually get each season. When they arrive in my area, (April 1st on the average), I usually experience some close encounters when I'm outside gardening. And once the babies are out of the nest, there is always at least one hummer somewhere in my yard. I have found I am having more group sightings each year because I've been fine tuning the plants I grow, through trial and error, not repeating plants that are not the best source of nectar. This was the first year I actually saw hummers "hawking" bugs mid-flight and they were doing this branch hopping in the trees, poking around the forks of branches, eating bugs, I assume. I've been working to create a hummingbird habitat and I guess I'm succeeding.

In the spring I check the migration map daily to see where the hummers are so my feeders will be ready when they arrive. I leave the feeders up until the end of November just in case.