An adult male Allen's showed up in Lakeland last week after the freeze so Doreen Cubie is making a trip down to try to band it on Sunday. From there, she'll head to my yard to try to catch some of mine.

Julie, if you're interested in observing, e-mail me at backes1@verizon.net (or, click on the "Steve Backes" in the upper right of this message)

A few days ago I counted 20 hummingbirds using my feeders. I've regularly had at least 13 that I can usually find when things are calm in the yard. My neighbor across the street has a few regulars as well.

After expressing my concern with activity in my yard, my yard has become the hotspot of the neighborhood with the kids. No other yard has a 24 foot by 20 foot by 5 foot tall mulch pile to play on (my whole tree was ground up and piled on my driveway). Today, I discovered that I also have the largest "sandbox" in the neighborhood, my whole front yard, since I have no grass after having a new drain field installed in December. What started out as a two squirt gun battle, turned into a ten kid engineering challenge to build a lake. I'm sure my neighbors were happy to see their mud caked children when they got home. At least they're not running in the backyard and the front yard hummers didn't seem to mind too much.

I've got an Audubon field trip visiting my yard Saturday morning. The group that I gave my presentation to last week. BTW, it went very well. Thanks to all who offered photos. I used quite a few of them. The group really enjoyed the photos of all 11 species that have been reported in Florida along with the seven more that have been documented in our neighboring states. They were also amazed to discover that not only are there humminbirds other than Ruby-throateds around but they are also here during the winter. Many said that they were going home to hang a feeder. Hopefully, I'll be hearing back from them.

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)

Thank you Steve, for the great news contained in your e mails.

Wow.. getting people interested in hummers so much that they are going right home to hang feeders..!! wonderful work you are doing..!

I have some friends visiting Valerico in the Spring.. I will tell them that there are hummers galore over there.

These folks hang feeders in their own personal Northern backyards, and are always interested in learning about hummer activities in different areas.

I know they visited Bradenton last year, and the few people they asked about local hummer populations simply shrugged their shoulders at the question .


strange.. but true...
Nice to know there is some good interest down your way.( down from the frozen North, Up from Bradenton)

cheerio
alice

...


USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Hi Steve, thanks for thinking of me. I'm sure I will take you up on your generous offer one day. Unfortunately, this weekend is packed! Good luck!

Congratulations on the birds and also having the best playground on the block. I could not help but smile at your description of what is going on.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

I'm late for bed (I have to go into work at 1 am) so this is just a quick summery of the day's banding. Doreen went to Lakeland first to band the Allen's and had it in the trap within 15 seconds of setting the trap. The homeonwer wanted to video the process but the bird was trapped before he could get the tape in the camera.

Not as much luck here. We were unable to coax the Rufous into the trap in 45 minutes of trying. We did manage to catch 5 Ruby-throateds during that time. We moved the trap to the front yard and caught 5 more Ruby-throateds. Ten Ruby-throateds for the day.

Added to these ten birds, I still have the two Rufous around along with the other 4 Ruby-throateds banded in the past two months for 16 banded birds in my yard. There are still at least one unbanded female Archilochus, a couple of young Ruby-throats and probably at least one adult male Ruby-throat.

I spoke to someone today who lives about 5 miles from me who had given up trying to attract hummingbirds before starting because he was told by local nurseries that we're not on the migration flyway and don't get hummingbirds. He also contacted Birds and Bloom and was told of "a small cluster of Hummingbirds were in St Petersburg"(?). I explained that this is the publicity that I'm trying to change. The newspaper article really helped judging by the e-mails I've been receiving.

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)