Things I did not know

There are a couple of interesting things I’ve learnt this summer.

For one thing, I’ve discovered that hummingbirds abandon you.

You put out a feeder. They go mad for it for a few weeks and then they disappear. Bit ungrateful, if you ask me. At first I just thought they were specifically abandoning me, so I posted a query on one of the Gabriola groups on Facebook. It prompted the following discussion.

ME: Hardly any hummingbirds using my feeder in the past couple of weeks. Anyone else noticing this or is it just me who's being rejected?

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·         Us too. There's definitely been a slow down from the frenetic feeding of the past few weeks. Maybe there are so many flowers around that their need for supplementary nectar is lessened?

·         I saw one by the garden yesterday, otherwise, nary a hummer in sight!

·         Sometimes when the wild honeysuckle is in full bloom, the hummers spend their time on that. Although I thought that had already happened.

·         I think the Rufous hummers have migrated south now and only the Anna hummers are here now and they stay all year round. 😃💕

·         The Rufous disappeared all at once at the end of June. We have about 6 Annas left and they will overwinter.

ME: So (as a newbie), keep the feeder out year round or...?

·         Yes. The birds who are here year round will still need it ☺

·         I have read that if you decide to keep your hummingbird feeder up year round, it becomes a very important source of energy for our local hummers (usually Annas). You will have to make sure it is always available and that it doesn't freeze. We bring ours in overnight whenever the temp goes below zero and put it back out first thing the next morning. We've had two female Annas come to the feeder all winter and it's always nice to hear the buzz of their wings. For more info Anna’s Hummingbird Information Page.

Yes, I bet it is nice to hear the buzz of hummingbird wings in the winter, but I have to be honest. Am I really going to remember to bring the feeder in when it might freeze? Am I really going to remember to change the nectar every week when there is no appreciable reduction in volume in the feeder? In other words, how likely am I to be responsible about feeding hummingbirds in winter? Let’s be honest: not at all likely.

So, methinks better to store feeder in shed until the spring and leave the winter feeding to the more conscientious. The question now is, given the dearth of hummingbirds I’m currently seeing, should I retire it forthwith?

The other thing I’ve learnt this summer is that butterflies love lobelia – especially (for some reason) the cobalt blue variety.

Who knew? Although only one butterfly hung in there to have its photo taken, there were three going at the lobelia when I went indoors to get the camera.

Having written this down, I decide to do an internet search. Apparently the appeal of lobelia to butterflies is very well known.

This same internet search reveals that lobelia are also supposed to attract hummingbirds. So, where the hell are they? Now I really am taking this personally.