Where have all the hummers gone?

Hi folks,
I posted in the hummer gardening forum, and the bird forum, but thought I'd ask y'all too. I have tons of nectaring plants in full bloom, but absolutely no hummers. Is anyone else having this problem? Do you know why? Maybe they skipped over us in their northern migration b/c the dry winter didn't produce as many wildflowers?

One of my dogs just wandered in here with a two foot stick caught in his tail. It's no wonder I have such a hard time keeping up with the housekeeping! Wondered what y'all knew about the hummers. I sure miss them! This pic is from last Oct.

elphaba i don't usually get them anyway until the fall. wish i knew how to get them here in the spring. i just figure i am not in their migratory route.

I have 3 or 4 in my yard - they've been with me since late winter/early spring. I can't evaluate whether this is fewer than normal since I don't keep feeders - just nectar plants - and the hummingbird fights are the only way I get to see more than one at a time.

I usually don't see them until sometime in June.

I usually see them fighting too, Mocatmom, usually as early as Jan/February. This year, nada. I usually don't do feeders either since I worry about black fungus and b/c I have so many flowers that they love. Can't figure out what's wrong this year.

Mamajack, seems weird that you'd only see them in the fall. Don't they migrate along the same route? I guess I can hope that I will at least see them again in the fall.

Well, I just saw Irwells post, so maybe they will just show up later than usual this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I had a couple a month or so ago, but I haven't seen any in a few weeks. I usually see more in the fall as they go back south I guess.I'm trying to plant more things they like hoping to entice someone to hang around all summer

Well around here, not only are there no hummingbirds, but there are no mosquitos. I'm not really complaining about the mossies, but they do feed a lot of creatures . . .

Sometimes it's almost July before I see any.

I have seen only one hummer this spring . Usually, by this time, I have them fighting at the feeders and plants. I keep changing out the nectar
and hoping to see them.

jana

I have at least 5 here they started buzzing where the feeder was last fall about a month ago .. So I knew it was time to fill it up again ...
But We have the mosquitos too
Cheryl

I have TONS of mosquitos. Have had hummers too since March, but they've been more scarce the last couple of weeks. Seems to me that I had a lot of them in July & August last year.

We have a lot more mosquitos than we did last year.

I have a normal number of mosquitoes, but a lot more flies.

I usually see one or two hummingbirds in the spring, but they don't stay. I start seeing them daily when fall migration starts in early June. If you're used to seeing them all the time and aren't right now, it may be that they're "on nest." As Arnold would say -- They'll be back. :-)

Carla

Carla ~ I think you are right. I see quite a few in the early dawn hours and at dusk. I suspect they are nesting. It is hard to want to stay out at those times as the mosquitos are grim.

my backyard was wiped out w/IKE.....just got 2 palms put in the yard!
So all my hummingbird plants are gone. My sister in law in SantaFe said she
has some hummers. The skeeters are so bad I just came back from Home Depot
with some Yard Guard, see if that works. They'll bite even if you have OFF on!

well the mosquitoes are alive and well in rockwall county.

not sure why they don't come until fall. and then it's usually only 1 or 2. for just a few days.

jack found a snake in the garage a week ago. just stretched out on a piece of plywood. so much rain.

I usually have several at once fighting over the feeders beginning in March. This year hardly any. Lucky to see maybe 6 a day.Many plants blooming but hardly any takers this year. glad I'm not the only one noticing............strange. My cestrum nocturnum are beginning to bloom and they usually flock to that in the evening hours. the mosquitoes are so bad that I haven't had a chance to check that out the past two nights. Every now and then when I am watering, I may have one wanting a drink from the spray.

Susie

About the same as usual here as far as hummers. Some coming through in spring. One pair stays around the neighborhood and raises a family until fall. Then in fall there's more around as the migration goes through. Then they're all gone.

linda, where is medina county? why don't they come here if they come to you? you must be straight across but west of me. i would love to see hummers nesting. never seen one be still.

I'm near Bexar Co. (San Antonio's county)...actually I'm in the NE corner of a county west of Bexar Co. I don't know why they come here and not where you are. We never do have large numbers of them like some people do. Just one family of hummers around the neighborhood during the warm mid-spring to mid-fall time and during migration times a small number of others will be coming through and stop to nectar where they can. They sure can make me feel good when I hear those little noises they make and see how they love my flowers!

i know. there is something about a little hummingbird that makes me want to want to jump up and down with glee. at 54. just busy, busy, busy and when they find something they like......and it's turk's cap in my yard.....they stop for awhile.

This must be the year for mosquitos, flies, ants, fleas and not hummers. I do know some years I have been skipped you not often. So maybe the dry weather has some to do with it. I know there are not as many wild flowers as years past and we have had so many wild fires there is less places for them to build nest so maybe next year they will come back. I do put up feeders and keep them fresh also plant alot for them but they have not been tempted this year.

I'm in Bexar county too. I saw a hummer two days ago. He was sipping on one of those succulents/cacti that sends out the 8-foot spike of pink tubular flowers (don't know the name of the plant). I went to get my camera but he left before I got back.
LiseP

Well, I have a zillion important things to do, so naturally, I wasted an hour getting maps and making dots where people have reported not seeing hummers (red report) and where they have seen them (green report). I mapped it as best I could on a map of Hurricane Ike's path.

Almost all of you who said that you normally see hummers this time of year and are not seeing them at all, were in the path of Hurricane Ike. There were a few exceptions with a red report in North Carolina, a red report in Georgia and one in New Mexico.

Six red reports were right around me where Hurricane Ike made landfall. Two were in Illinois in the path of the storm. One in Indiana appeared to be a little south of the storm and was countered by another green report of hummers nearby.

There were three green reports near the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but I can't tell for sure if Dallas was in the path of the storm. It looks like it was right on the Western edge of it. Y'all fill me in.

There were three green reports in Texas west of the storm near Austin and San Antonio.

One green report did appear to be in the path of the storm in Missouri although on the eastern edge of the storm.

All the other green reports (14) were in areas unaffected by Hurricane Ike (eastern US).

I'm not a scientist, and there really wasn't enough data to know for sure, but I'm inclined to believe that the hurricane had something to do with this year's hummer drought. Some hummers who usually live in these areas or migrate on that path may have been killed. Others may have decided to take another route. Maybe when they came across the gulf and saw that Galveston and Boliver etc. were wiped out, they went further west or east. Of course, it could be some other reason all together!

Doesn't appear to be the winter drought though since this area was less affected by the drought than areas further west and yet the hummers are appearing west of us.

elphaba i like your way of thinking. just curious but how do hummers know which way to go? do birds smell?

LOL! No idea. I think I heard somewhere that birds are able to detect the --shoot, I don't know the right words for it -- the magnetic field (?) around the earth. That's not the right terminology, so one of your experts out there correct me, but it's like they have their own internal compass.

We, bird watchers, also know that birds have good memories. They remember who has feeders. I've even heard reports of migrating hummers banging on windows to remind the homeowner to put out their feeders. They might remember where a storm has been and just stay clear of the area.

I was just trying to poke holes in my theory b/c lets face it, a lot of hurricanes hit the coast of the US. Instead of poking holes in it, it got a little stronger. The red report in New Mexico is where Gustav curled back up and ended causing flooding and deaths in that part of New Mexico. Hmmmm....

We did have a lot of wind and rain in Paris as Ike went thru. It's still a little early for me to see any, but I have seen them in early June before. Maybe they were going around a hurricane that went thru LA!

irwells what plants are they going to? when they come to your house i could come and kidnap them. they'd like it here i know they would if they would just come. do they come to your house every year in the early summer? do they stay? do they return in the fall?

I am happy to report that the hummingbirds are beginning to appear here in the north-east part of Texas. Today I was face-to-face with a Ruby Red Throat!! She was beautiful. I haven't seen the hummingbirds since last fall!!

I am very concerned about the lack of honey bees here. I have seen only ONE, (1) single honeybee so far this year.

I hope I see more soon.

i'm concerned about the bees too. they were on the penstemon tenuis when it was blooming but bees are few and far between. i am especially sad as i had them living inside my old garage ever since i moved here in 1994. had to remove them when i built a new building. i miss them though.

I was sitting on the porch late Monday evening telling a friend about this when one began to dive bomb us, lol. It was late dusk so I couldn't tell you what it looked like. I have some four o'clocks nearby where we were sitting. Last year there was a bunch of hummers living in that bush of them.

Okay, I just have to be the fly in the ointment. I live about 10 miles west of mamajack, and I have hummers from March until October. I don't know how many because I always only have one at a time in the yard. I may see more, but whenever a second/third/fourth tries to come in the yard, the first one drives them away. (It's always been that way. Feisty little creatures, aren't they?) But I did see a hummer tonight at my salvia. I haven't seen as many at the feeder as last year, but then I haven't had much time to sit out there and watch for them. I'm still having to refill it just as often.

As for bees... I haven't ever understood the whole thing about them disappearing. I always have TONS of bees, including honeybees. No difference this year.

Elphaba, D-FW was prepared for Ike, but escaped the worst of it. It veered right (east) instead. I was all set with emergency supplies. But as it turned out, all my Marshall relatives had to do without power for a week, along with my Houston relatives.

well sure. jusy come on here and make my garden sound unpalatable to hummers. i have salvia too you know.

We have hummingbirds this year in San Marcos. Very friendly ones at that.

There is almost always a dozen or two at our feeders. This is in Kendalia, north of San Antonio.

I put the feeder up after seeing the hummingbird. There were several around here last year. They would fly close to us while we would sit out on the patio, almost like saying "good morning". I thought they were playing when they would race around. But was informed that no, one was trying to keep the others away from the feeder. LOL After observing them, I realized that was true, one of the hummers hung out on a branch near the feeder and everytime another would land there, it chased them off.

The outer edge of Ike skimmed us here, and we did get some high winds. I found a hummer that didn't make it out. I was so upset.

I don't recall seeing the ruby red throated hummer last year, they were more green.

pbtxlady, I'm glad to know that you are seeing lots of honey bees.

I usually don't see them in at the feeders until around this time of year. I think they're busy enjoying real nectar from area flowers, and nesting.

Plus we've got a particularly bossy mockingbird in our backyard this year - he seems to enjoy chasing everything out of "his" territory, so that may be putting the hummers off as well.

Still haven't seen one yet. I have a feeder out, but also salvias, agastaches, and the neighbors have honeysuckle, grumble, grumble

Allwild ~ the green hummer is the female of the Ruby Throated species. The pretty one with the ruby throat and darker head is the male. Right now, the females are nesting so they don't get around much... lol

BTW, Elphaba ~ very pretty photo once again!