Don Kondra how are the Hummers?

[Merv in Regina]

Wondering how your Hummers are doing given the crappy weather.
My friend said the Hummers came and then seemed to have disappeared.
He has had Hummers visiting his feeder for the past 15 years, but their activities are different this year compared to the past years.
Hope your buddies are still around.
Merv

[Don Kondra]

Hi Merv,

This year is definitely different and not in a good way, only a single pair have returned. With this weather they have been feeding fairly regularly, even while it's raining.



Some years my house is surrounded by wild rose bushes and it doesn't look like there will be many this summer. Haven't been for a walk in the bush lately but I hope that isn't the case with the wild flowers.

One the other hand, the pin cherry trees are flourishing. I had a couple in the front that took years to reach three feet, now there's a half dozen in the back that suddenly sprouted to ten feet ??



Another oddity is the chickadee's lately are absent, I normally have to fill the feeder every four or five days but the half dozen birds I see per day will take quite a while to clean it out.

On the other hand I have an abundance of woodpeckers, at least eight different individuals and one of the females is HUGE, they definitely enjoy the suet feeder.

The last few days I have house finches visiting, never saw them here before. The goldfinches normally don't stay long but I doubt I've seen a dozen up till now.



The biggest change is I haven't seen a single blue bird yet and that is a first for the 26 years I've been here...

I guess they are just going where the food is... with the warmest and earliest spring I can remember I expected an abundance of my little buddies, not so though.

Cheers, Don

[jim in Halifax]

Wondering how your Hummers are doing given the crappy weather.
My friend said the Hummers came and then seemed to have disappeared.
He has had Hummers visiting his feeder for the past 15 years, but their activities are different this year compared to the past years.
Hope your buddies are still around.
Merv

Our chicadees are very seldom seen...always had them at the seed feeder..seed now lasts a long time....Blue jays are screeching daily..also only a few robins around this year....Too many black birds and grackles!!!!

[Don Kondra]

Thankfully the blue jays don't visit here regularly, one jay can clean the feeder out in one day



Cheers, Don