Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:22:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Re: SI hummers In-Reply-To: <2A9C9CCE.793F41A0.0016BA20@aol.com> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I tend to agree with Steve although part of me wishes the little guys would move a few blocks further east and discover the Botanical Gardens greenhouse! Oh well. About providing feeders -- I think hummingbird experts have been saying for a long time that keeping your feeder up does NOT encourage birds to stay around, that day length etc. is the stimulus to migration. Keeping a feeder up into autumn may bring a "vagrant" (or exploring?) hummer to your yard but I am not sure that it keeps it there. The guys at the Smithsonian may very well consider this their "wintering grounds" -- certainly they are behaving in the usual aggressive "it's MY wintering grounds!" manner. If they can make it through, they might well return. Or they may move off to warmer climes. One tip that I have read (maybe in a post on BirdChat from hummingbird guru Nancy Newfield) is to make winter rations with a bit more sugar than the usual 1/4 ratio. The birds may also be able to find small gnats which will swarm even when temperatures are at freezing. Gail Mackiernan Silver Spring, MD on 12/09/2003 11:35 AM, Steve Huy at Gabboon@AOL.COM wrote: > I'm not being unsentimental in my views. I would like to see these > birds survive. But I also think people are being over sentimental in > the desire to "help" these birds. I think it is misguided and > unnecessary, perhaps detrimental, to try to "save" these birds (not to > mention illegal should anyone try). > > People are feeling sorry for them as "doomed" creatures that they > think will certainly freeze, yet ignoring the fact that they are > surviving. These are hummingbirds. We are not talking about hawks > that may slowly starve over several days in absence of food. Or a > scissor tailed fly catcher. These are creatures with high metabolic > rates that will likely perish within hours should conditions become > too tough. And they have so far survived conditions that are typical > of the worst winter weather we can get in this region. > > I say celebrate their presence. It may be a new discovery of something > that has happened for eons yet gone unnoticed by us. Perhaps its new > migration routes. Perhaps new wintering grounds for a bird adapting > to a new climate. We may be witnessing the evolutionary process here, > nature's "mistake" resulting in adaptation and survival and subsequent > change. > > Quit being so gloomy and feeling sorry for birds that probably don't > need you to feel sorry for them. Appreciate this God given opportunity > to see a species change. I look forward to seeing these birds return > in later years. And it would be wonderful to have hummingbirds all > year long, yet still get some snow. > > Steve > > > > shouldn't feel some grief over nature's "mistakes".> > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================