I shared this story with Nancy earlier while talking to her about something else. I wanted everyone to know about it so here goes.....

It was time to refill my feeders. I came to this one particular feeder that had a youngster on it. As I approached the feeder...I expected him to fly off. That was first mistake! I was a little rushed for time. I normally would have let him finished or just go to another feeder but this time I was in a hurry. So I picked up the feeder with him on it thinking that would make him fly off. That was my second mistake. He just kept sitting there looking at me. He turned his head and continued to indulge himself while I was holding the feeder. Finally....I am so excited that he allowed me to observe him at such a close position.....I remembered that I was still in a hurry. He raised his head from eating again but still would not budge. He refused to leave that feeder. I reached over.....grabbed him off his perch......and sat him onto the next feeder about 24 inches to my right. He repositioned himself on his new perch......looked at me again.....and resumed his feeding ritual on his new feeder. When he finished......he took one last look at me and flew off to a perch high up in a tree in my backyard.

I have never even heard of something like this. It was very rewarding!

Ken Risenhoover
Kingwood, Texas
USDA Hardiness Zone 9a

Ken,

Yes, that kind of experience is very rewarding and thank you for sharing it with us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9
http://www.casacolibri.net/

What a thrill that must have been Ken and thank you for sharing. Isn't life grand when hummingbirds are around?




Kathi and Michael Rock
Madison, Wisconsin
Zone 4/5

Sure is Kathi! Life is so good!

Ken Risenhoover
Kingwood, Texas
USDA Hardiness Zone 9a

What a wonderful story. If only eveyone could have such an experience.

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

My most rewarding hummingbird experience comes from my youth. My interest in hummingbirds came from my times spent with an older gentleman who was a retired farmer. I used to work for him doing odd jobs starting when I was 12 during my summers spent at our cottage near Point Pelee. After my work was done, it was custom for us to sit down and chat with an Ice Tea and watch the hummingbirds come to the feeder that he had.

That fall we visited our cottage and had thanksgiving dinner with his family. The weather was terrible, the wind was non stop and the feeder that he had set up was swinging around constantly. The hummingbirds, eager to migrate and very hungry would try in vain to sit or feed from the air on the feeder, but because the feeder kept swinging, they couldn't land or stay with the feeder flowers. My sister and I hatched a plan to hold our coats wide open next to the feeder to create a wind break. The feeder stopped swinging and we were immediately rewarded with 25 hummingbirds flying all around us taking turns at the feeder. My sister and I held our coats like that for hours until the wind subsided that evening when it was time for dinner.

This was also the first time I saw a Rufous Hummingbird as there was a very strange brown hummingbird in the mix with the other mostly green ones. The old farmer looked it up in his bird book and we both felt that it was a Rufous. Neither of us knew why the Rufous was there, but the bird book did mention that sometimes they stray eastwards. It was either a female or immature bird.

From that point onward I was quite hooked on hummingbirds and that next year I set on making my first hummingbird garden.

Steve Kapusta

Zone 4b Sydenham, Ontario
Hummingbird Bander - Ontario Hummingbird Project
www.ontariohummingbirds.ca

Thanks Steve!
Another heartwarming story!

BTW, In case you are wondering about Steve seeing hummingbirds on Thanksgiving, that is because in Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated the 2nd Monday in October rather than the 4th Thursday of November as it is in the US

Penny
NY
USDA hardiness zone 6
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

The first one that comes to mind is sitting by a wash in the Window Trail in Big Bend NP watching Lucifer Hummingbirds visit patches of a red Penstemon while listening to singing Gray Vireos. I don't know what species of Penstemon it was only that it was the only flower in bloom. Or perhaps the it was the first Rufous Hummingbird to visit my yard. A naked eye bird at some distance in frosted Pineapple Sage that sent me dashing for my binoculars thinking: that ain't no Ruby-throated!

Those are both just great stories .. I love having these guys around the neatest lil creatures.. the only rewarding story was that i was a planter at the end of a love seat out in the garden and there was another planter at the end of it .. a hummer flew down to feed off the beebalm in it and while i was bent over digging up bulbs it flew right up to my face .... if i had a flower in my mouth it would have fed out of it .. that was the closest ive been to one .. hand feeding is my next mission ..

Marion

Steve,

What an absolutely great story. I wish moments like that could last forever. Thank you so much for sharing it!