I’ve seen a few people mentioning lately that hummingbirds seem to be packing up for the season. Which seems a little early. And I haven’t noticed much in the way of a slowdown at my feeder.
For the past couple of weeks it has almost been hard to keep up with them. I fill the feeder, they drain it out. I suppose with new arrivals over the summer and everyone getting prepared for the coming flight, they need to do some serious tanking up. And they sure have been around my place. But others are saying they have stopped seeing them.
I know some people get concerned that if they leave feeders out the birds might decide to stay. Apparently, they don’t. There comes a point where they are just going to leave and head south.
I have no idea what triggers them. It could be temperature, but that can change to easily. It could be the amount of daylight, because days are certainly getting shorter. But for whatever reason, there will come a time when they pack up their pointy little bills and head for Mexico for the winter.
It does seem to happen suddenly. You may see a few stragglers from more northern areas who grab a sip from a feeder on the way by, but it seems like one day they are here and the next they are gone. No goodbyes. No “thanks for the syrup”. They’re just gone.
I’ve never written it down, but it seems to happen around the first day of fall. Somewhere there must be a calendar that tells all the hummingbirds when it’s time to go.
And that time is coming. It hasn’t quite happened yet. And, to be honest, I’ll miss them. But they’ll be back. Some time around the first of May or very close to it.
