Cheryl <jlhshadow@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in news:Xns9807F0B46E874shads@
130.133.1.4:

My dad found a hummingbird under his feeder one day, lying on the
sidewalk.  He didn't really know what to do, but he picked it up with
some idea of nursing it back to health.  Apparently, the warmth from his
hand was sufficient nursing, because after about five minutes, it flew
away.  :-)

Chak

Nice post, Cheryl. I keep thinking I should put up a bird feeder
particularly one for hummingbirds. It never occurred to me that
the sugar would attract ants, though - that's a concern. But maybe
not - the ants I seem to get prefer cat food. :)

Speaking of cats, one of the reasons I'd like to have a bird feeder
is to provide entertainment for the restless furries while I'm gone
all day.

Joyce

Ooo I have a few hummingbird stories....pardon the length

It was an early spring morning so still a bit chilly, I was 13 and my
science teacher was outside and beckoned to a bunch of us standing
around.  He had something in his hand.  He opened it slightly and we
saw a small hummingbird, shivering from the cold.  He explained some
science stuff, i forget exactly what he said, but then he cupped the
hummingbird back in his hands and blew warm air into it.  he then
opened his hands and the hummer perked up and flew away.

Then back in 2001, when i was working as a receptionist for a dot.com
company, our walkway leading to our front door had a lot of plants and
trees.  And I noticed this hummer hanging around.  I even got a feeder
for it.  Then one evening as I was leaving, I walked out to the
sidewalk and suddenly there was this hummer in my face.  I ducked and
moved as it flew towards me and suddenly it gave up and returned to a
tree by the walkway.  I slowly approached and realized it was a SHE and
SHE was sitting on a nest.

Unfortunately a few days later she abandoned the nest, so I reached up
and retrieved and it still had three eggs in it.  Awww....     The eggs
cracked on the way home, and i think i kept the nest for a while.  I
wonder where it is.....

And then last year, when I was heading out to springboard diving
practice from the locker room, my teammate pointed out something on the
chain link fence in the locker room.  It was a hummer and he was
clinging on for dear life.  The poor thing must have gotten stuck
inside all night.  So I gently picked him up and took him outside and
put him on the branch of a bush.   I was still thinking of him during
practice.  After practice on the way back into the locker room i
noticed that the hummer was still there on the bush.  The same teammate
who pointed it out to me said it was probably dead.  I showered and got
changed for class and when i came out i decided to take the hummer to
my professor and see if she could do anything.  So i put him in my soft
farming hat and wrapped that carefully in my towel.

I took it to the RVT building and the morning surgery lab was in
session (i was in the afternoon lab)  I showed it to my classmates and
they were quite amazed.  My professor was also pleased that i brought
it in, and everyone shared the sorrow when I told them how the poor
thing had been shut in a locker room with no way out.  My professor
said it was probably exhausted then gave a quick 5 minute spiel on
hummers and hummer care but then shooed the students back to the lab.
She found a small box for me and we stuffed it with kleenex.  Then she
told me to get a 1 cc syringe with no needle, a small amount of water
and half a packet of sugar.  I got them and closed myself up in my
professor's office and held the little guy up to the syringe with sugar
water.

Hummers have really long, really thin tongues and the trick is to get
them to stick their tongue INTO the syringe.  After a few tries I got
him to drink some.  "Aww, you like that?  How about a little more?"  I
gave him a tiny bit more to drink then put him back into the box.  The
box had no lid so I put my farmhat on top.  Then I left.

After about 15 minutes or so I went back into the office to check on
the hummer.  I reached down and put my hand on the hat when something
when THUNK.  Like something on the inside was trying to get out.  I
lifted up my hat VERY slowly and saw the hummer sitting on the nest of
kleenex.

"Hey little guy, you look much better."  In saying this I didn't
realize that i also removed my hat.  Oops....

*cut to hummer flying out of the box and around the office with me
trying to catch him with my hat, i'm sure to an outsider it would have
been funny*

I finally managed to get him when he landed on a hanging mobile and
swooped him into my hat.  Then I opened the door to the outside and
told the little guy to stay away from locker rooms.  I took away my
hand and he immediately flew up, hovered in front of me for a split
second and then flew away.

And I went to class with a big smile on my face.

Kristi

There's an easy way to make an ant-deterrent.

Cut the top off of a pop plastic bottle (say 20-oz coke, ours was Mountain
Dew), remove the screw-on cap and drill a hole in it.  Thread the hanger for
the hummingbird feeder through the hole, so that the cap is inverted, and
the top is near the feeder, opening that *was* screwed onto the pop bottle
is up.  push the cap all the way down, as close to the feeder as you can.
If possible, glue the cap to the top of the feeder (we used a hot clue gun).
Screw the bottle's top half back onto the cap, so that it forms a cup. Screw
it on tightly, seal with more glue if you want.  Fill the "cup" with water,
and refill every as it evaporates.  You now have an ant-block between the
feeder and whatever you hang it from!

We had the problem of ants continuously marching up the 'shepherds hook'
that our feeder hangs from.  When we removed the feeder for cleaning, that
thing was *covered* with ants, looking for the free handout.  We decided to
make this ant-block when we cleaned the feeder, and when we replaced the
feeder with ant-blocker, it was only minutes before they had marked the base
of the post with a 'no free meal; here scent, and nary an ant even bothers
to climb the pole to the hook anymore!

I've taken a couple of pictures (was buzzed by a hummer in the process!),
and have posted them.  Not the most attractive feature, but *very*
functional!

Pics are here:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/76978303/2630734320047371020PNdsmy

and http://community.webshots.com/photo/76978303/2211856470047371020bMIJtS

I have three feeders - one each at a window.  I go through about two
gallons of nectar a week.  They are located up high (I have to use a
ladder to change them)  and I have never had an ant problem.  My two
cats don't pay any attention to the hummers even though they (the
hummers) are constantly buzzing around the feeders.  Bees have not been
a problem either.

                 ---MIKE---

Hi -

Here's another hummer "fan"!!  

They come here on their way to Mexico.  We never see them on their way
north - they must take a different route.  We put out feeders on the
first of July as the first "scouts" come in then.  Our first visitor
this year came on the 5th.  The last of them leave around the first
week in September on their way to the Gulf of Mexico, which they fly
over non-stop to their winter habitat.  It gives me the chills to
think of those tiny little birds going all that distance over water
without a break on land!!   Since the Ruby Throats are the only
hummers to be found east of the Mississippi (and they don't go west
either), we have the pleasure of seeing the boys' with their colorful
throats and the feisty little girls zooming about.  It's one of our
favorite times of the summer watching them fatten up for the arduous
trip ahead of them.  I enjoyed your post so much, thanks for writing
it.