There are still a lot of hummingbirds at my house in Northwest Ohio. The last average date that I see hummingbirds is October 11. I always have large numbers of hummingbirds during the fall migration but I never have so many this late in the season. There are still so many birds that there are too many to count. I live next to the Maumee River and I'm assuming that hummingbirds must follow it from Lake Erie and that brings so many to my area. The high temps the last several days have only been in the 50s and the next several days we are only suppose to have highs in the 40s. I would assume that the birds will be gone in a day or two with weather that cool. You southern gardeners are lucky. You still have some hummingbirds to look forward to.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Last October was an exceptional one here in South Jersey too. This year is less so, but just this evening the first RT since last Friday appeared in the Cannas. Since the hummingbird gardens were expanded here the average date of departure has increased by around a month, not including the casual western hummingbirds who have their own schedules. Certainly the Ruby-throats were always there in early October, but a big garden gives them some place to take a break and fuel up.

Hey, Gary - Middletown, Ohio here and this has been unusual October for us as well. This afternoon in the rain and cold I counted four at one time on our deck with feeder and flower visits all day long. During past October's, we've usually had a single visitor that stayed for 2 or 3 weeks. Today, it looked like July or August out there with multiple sightings and several chases throughout the afternoon.

Bud
Southwest Ohio
USDA Plant Zone 6a

Camera: Pentax K20D
Lens: Pentax DA*300 f/4, Sigma 180 f/3.5 Macro
There's 1 or 2 more hummingbird / butterfly pics located here...
http://www.pbase.com/budohio

Hello Gary,


Thanks for sharing that info! Wow! What a surprise to hear about so many...even now. I hope they bust a groove and head due south of you. They aren't going to want to doddle and hang out with record low temps here on it's way!
The temps here will be breaking all time lows for the "high" temp Saturday. Currently, the record low (for the high) for 10th of October in Lincoln, Nebraska is 42. It's expected to be about 35...and that's going to be the "high" temp!
It's big news here that we will be getting snow on Saturday and Sunday now...not a blizzard in inches of snow or winds, but between both days we could get a few inches of snow.


Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Hey Gary
You aren't far off the Water Trail (Lake Erie) from me here in western NY. Next spring when all those hummers flock to your place do me a favor and send some of them further east to my place. My count was WAY down this year.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Hi Penny,

Actually, my numbers were down this year until early September. It was kind of a disappointing year until late in the fall migration. My neighbor sits on his front porch every evening and he even commented to me that he saw less hummingbirds flying around my yard this year while he sits on his porch. I guess he enjoys watching them, too.
Something else I noticed is that the hummingbirds didn't use the feeders very much this year. The few birds that I did have this spring and summer mostly ignored them and fed on flowers instead. Every year I increase the number and species of hummingbird plants that I grow so maybe I now have so many flowers that the feeders aren't that necessary.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

I had a very good year here in western PA, but I am still not a member of the October hummingbird club. Consistently, for the last 4 years that I've been watching, my latest sightings have been in the final few days of September.

Although temperatures are getting cool, and promising to get colder this week, I do still have a lot of flowers for them to feed on, but I've seen nothing since September 28th. Hummingbirds are still being reported in areas that are to my north and that are in colder climate zones than me. I am becoming more and more convinced that it comes down to location. I think I'm just not fortunate enough to be on a major migration corridor. Still, I can hardly complain about what was a great season. I enjoyed them immensely every day that they were here. I'm already looking forward to their return, which I expect will be in early May of next year.

I keep hoping I'll see my first Rufous this fall, but none so far!

Gary
Now my hummers practically ignored the garden this year. I had very little plant use the entire season. Even the one migrant that I had after the regulars left used the feeder almost exclusively and I had more blooming plants that brains. I am guessing that because we had such a cool to cold summer The feeders were a more reliable nectar source than the plants were. We also had tremendous amounts of rain that came in waves. It would be bone dry for weeks and then we would get hit with deluges of rain storms for several days running.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny,

It was also very cool here this summer. I only had to use the a/c 3 days. However, we were very dry this summer. Niagara Falls isn't that far away from here so it's odd that the rain kept missing us but hitting you. I would think that with the dry weather there would not have been much nectar in the flowers but the birds kept using them and pretty much ignored the feeders. I really didn't get to see the usual feeder battles this year. I guess we can never know what to expect from year to year.

There is still at least one bird in my yard today. Today ties my record for the latest hummingbird I have seen here. Maybe I'll see it tomorrow and break the record.

Gary

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Gary keep us posted on your last sighting. Yes each year is different. I really don't think that I can say what is typical because each year brings its on set of weather patters and temps. We have had summers that seemed to stay in the high 80's and low to mid 90's with very little rain and then the other extreme like this year. I am hoping for a much better and more summer like season next year.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

We still have one hummingbird in Madison, Wisconsin despite a winter chill.

We had the same summer conditions here in Wisconsin that you both describe. Many of our plants never even bloomed and we were often out in the yard in July with sweaters and jackets. I plan to compile a listing of plants next week that never bloomed for us this year and post that. We also were quite dry here and didn't receive any substantial rainfall until the end of September/early October.

We are really hoping for a real summer next year after two very cool summers.



Kathi and Michael Rock
Madison, Wisconsin
Zone 4/5

Except for a few 90+ days, we were wet and cool for much of the summer here in western PA. It never reached the upper 90's, and we had a surprising number of days in the 70's, and even into the upper 60's right in the heart of the summer. Typical summer temperatures around here are in the low 80's, but occasionally it will fall into the 60's, or soar into the high 90's. 100 degrees is almost unheard of.

Flowers that needed heat were slow to bloom, but some flowers actually seemed to prefer it--producing more intensely colored blooms that lasted longer. There were parts of our summer that felt like the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest! We also had some pretty scary torrential rains that caused flash flooding. I had to take two buses across the city that day to pick up my car at the mechanic. What an experience. I thought I was going to have to walk (or should I say, wade) the last several miles, but the bus did finally come.

To me, the ideal summer would stay in the 80's and never exceed 90. That's plenty warm enough for most things to grow, and not so hot as to make things wilt and dry up.

I think all of us in the northern states are hoping for much mor normal temps next summer. I agree with it feeling a lot like what I imagine the PNW climate is like. In fact the PNW was probably milder than it was in the upper midwest and northeast.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Interesting about your large numbers of migrating hummers, Gary.

Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to have Google show a 'migration route' map as one of their mapping features?

When I googled for Napoleon, OH location, I could see the Maumee River outline but it stopped right at Napoleon, so I couldn't' tell where the HBs would be going from there (I wanted to see if there was a natural routing down to Cincinnati but somehow I think the migration goes through Central Indiana).

I would love to get a sense of the HB routes south but I haven't been able to find one on the Internet.

Pls. keep us posted on your HB visitors. J.

Judy in Zone 6a
Cincinnati (Anderson Twp.)
Southwest Ohio

There were still at least two hummingbirds at my house today which beat the old record of October 12 being the last day I've seen a hummingbird in the past. We still haven't had a freeze so my yard is full of salvia and cuphea flowers.

Yes Judy, it would be very interesting to find out the humminbird migration routes. I seem to be on a major one. I'm assuming that the birds north of Lake Erie in Canada must get funneled along the west side of Lake Erie and then reach the Maumee River and follow it for a while.

I don't know why some maps show the Maumee River stopping at Napoleon. The river actually starts at Ft.Wayne, Indiana. Several rivers join there to form the Maumee and in Defiance, OH several other rivers join the Maumee which makes it much larger.

I'll let you know if I still see hummingbirds tomorrow. I was hoping that one of these late ones would be a Rufous but no such luck.

Gary

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

There were still two hummingbirds at my house today. It was cold, only 46 degrees, and it rained half of the day. The birds sure can't be very comfortable in this unseasonably cold weather.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Gary, I'm hoping my hummingbird here in metro Detroit will find her way to your place this week. It's getting scary thinking of her out there in these very cold temperatures. The flowers don't even look like they could possibly have any nectar left (really limp and sickly looking) but she was feeding from them this morning. I did cover them again tonight in case she's here in the morning.

I know just where to send her to get to your place-- I have relatives in Wauseon and Archbold. Interesting to read your comments about the Maumee River.

Allise
SE Michigan

Judy and Gary,
I don't know if this helps or not. I found this map of the Maumee done by Karl Musser, a cartographer and have been given permission to post it here. It shows the mouth at Ft. Wayne as it flows norheast into Lake Erie. The watershed was a large wetland at one time but is now mostly farmland. The info gave me to thinking that it would be a very good migration route with several smaller tributaries and islands along its route: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maumee_River

Here is Mr. Musser's map:


Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

There are still 2 hummingbirds here today. It's only 45 degrees (20 degrees below normal) and very windy. We had a very cold rain during the night. I kept thinking about how cold those birds must be. It's suppose to stay cold until Monday when the highs are suppose to get back up in the 60's.

Allise, I would be happy to host your hummingbird for a while. My Salvia B&B aren't looking very good anymore but the birds are still feeding from them. The Salvia involucrata, darcyi, regla, coccinea and elegans are still looking good as well as the cupheas so hopefully they are producing nectar. The birds don't use the feeders but I wish they would learn so they could fatten up and move south.

Penny, thanks for posting the map of the Maummee River. A lot of the river is forested along it's banks so I would think that it would be a great migration path. The Maumee River drainage used to be the Great Black Swamp but was drained for agriculture. The swamp must have been a hummingbird paradise. I can imagine that it was probably loaded with cardinal flower and jewelweed.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

QUOTE; The birds don't use the feeders but I wish they would learn so they could fatten up and move south.

Gary, what types of feeders are you using? It sounds like you have a real smorgasbord of nectar producing flowers, so you might have to offer as tempting an array of feeders to have your wish fulfilled.
Hummers here (no desperate hordes, just spoiled brats) seem to prefer little feeders, the tinier the better. Maybe that's just because they like to watch us scurry around, refilling feeders daily, fending off voracious mosquitoes, doing their bidding.....oops, back to the subject at hand...

You might want to try hanging test tube feeders or "Wal Mart Specials" in among the favored flowers. Birds are quick studies and once one "accidentally" finds a feeder you can be sure others will too. Once they recognize it as a food source, you can move it and they will follow. Also, try a 3 to 1 sugar solution to compete with the abundant nectar sources you've provided.




Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

I can account for what Lizette said about the feeder size. My test tube feeders got worked over by my last hummer that left on the 11th. She was emptying one a day. I didn't have my small walmart feeders up since it was just her but in previous years when I had quite a few at the end of the season those were the ones that got the action along witht he test tubs. They really do like little feeders and they take to them instantly.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Hi Gary

Wow, sounds like you like right on the migratory route south. Good to hear someone has so many even if its now. I have not have seen a hummer in 9 days now. Each year I seem to get more though and the last couple of years only I have had Oct hummers. Usually my big flush is late june thru august which I assume is mainly do to breeding and the young appearing. I do not expect to have another hummer this year but you never know , Im still keeping a couple feeders out plus flowers that are still blooming.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

There is still a hummingbird here this morning. The high temp today is only 47 degrees but at least it's finally not drizzling. I haven't seen the second hummingbird today so hopefully it finally left.
One bird was finally using the feeder yesterday but I haven't seen it using the feeder today so that must be the bird left. Using the feeder must have fattened it up enough to head farther south. I just made a 3:1 ratio batch of sugar water in case the other bird decides to try out the feeder.

Thanks for the info about feeders. I have 2 Hummzingers, one in the front yard and one in the backyard. Do other people have much success with that style of feeder? They are used a lot in the spring and summer by the adult birds but this year they weren't used as much as in the past. The young birds that are raised here seem to learn to use them from the adults but the migrating juvenals don't seem to recognize them as much. Maybe I will need to by one of the types that you wrote about to put out during the fall migration.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Gary, if you do a search there are several threads that discuss hummzingers and other feeders and their success rate. You'll find the reviews of the hummzinger are mixed.

Zone 5a
East-central Iowa

Thanks for the information, Dan. I'll search for those threads.

By the way, the bird that used the feeder yesterday is still here today. I saw it at the feeder several times this afternoon. It seemed to like the 3:1 ratio of sugar water. I hope that fattens it up.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Unfortunately there is still a hummingbird here. We had are first hard freeze last night and the flowers are done. I saw the bird trying to feed from frozen B&B and she obviouly wasn't getting any nectar. She doesn't seem to be using the feeders either so I'm getting concerned.

Gary
Napoleon, OH
USDA Zone 5b

Gary that has always been a fear of mine every since 2005 when I had a female show up after a snow storm. I had one salvia survive and since she didn't use a feeder, that was her only source of nectar. After that year I never wanted them to hang around once the temps started droping.. Hopefully yours will find enough food to be able to sustainer her until she can move on.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39