I could barely step outside without spotting a tiny hummingbird hovering over my zinnias or salvias. From mid-June to early October they sipped nectar and rested on the arbor that stretches over my daylilies.
To me, hummingbirds represent warm days, humid air and sweet-smelling flowers. Dark-eyed Juncos represent snow drifts, crisp air and frosty windowpanes. Last week I saw one of each bird in my yard at the same time. That has never happened before, and I found it ironic and a bit poetic. It was almost as if they were in a relay race and it was the junco’s turn to grab the baton. Winter can’t be far behind.
Hummingbirds usually depart southern Wisconsin in mid-September for their long migration to Central America. Monarch Butterflies fly thousands of miles too, but they head for central Mexico. Up until last week, both species were taking advantage of my waning flowers to bulk up for their long journeys. Numerous times I observed a hummingbird chasing a monarch off its perch on a zinnia.
After years of enticing hummingbirds to my yard with just flowers (red salvias, zinnias, nicotianas and cardinal flowers are favorites), I finally decided to put up a couple of hummingbird feeders this summer. They were an instant hit. Just about every time I looked out the window in August and September there was a hummingbird sipping nectar from one of the feeders. To cook up your own nectar simply boil 4 parts water and add 1 part sugar and let it dissolve. Let the mixture cool completely before filling the feeder. The sugar water stays fresh for about a week unless the weather is particularly hot. Clean the feeder with a little vinegar and water before refilling it with fresh nectar.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only common hummingbird east of the Mississippi, but sometimes in late fall Western species like the Anna’s Hummingbird and the Rufous Hummingbird have been known to veer during migration and appear in eastern states like Wisconsin and Illinois or even Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.
Just in case one of the Western interlopers comes through and needs a boost of energy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recommends keeping your hummingbird feeders up two weeks after you’ve spotted your last hummingbird.
We have a nice stretch of mild weather right now, so I plan to keep my feeders up until the first frost.