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Post by vallepatt on Oct 6, 2009 21:33:51 GMT -5
Hi Steve, Question for you......here in Jacksonville, if we haven't seen any Hummingbirds in the last 2 weeks, now that it has turned a little cooler, does this mean that we probably won't have any here for the fall/winter? I'm not sure weather to continue to clean and fill the feeder, or if we should take it down for the winter? Thank you
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Post by Steve Backes on Oct 7, 2009 9:11:28 GMT -5
Valle,
You may have seen your last birds of migration or maybe not. Even as migration winds down, there is a possibility that other, non-Ruby-throateds, may show up. We often see new birds showing up throughout the state into December and January. I can't really speak for the whole state as to when and where they will be but it is possible.
Quite often, birds will show up as other food sources are lost, whether it's a neighbor taking down a feeder or the chill reducing blooms.
I recommend that you try to keep a feeder up throughout the year or at least until a few days after the first hard freeze. If you don't want to maintain a feeder when it seems like there aren't any birds around, you may want to put up a feeder for a few days after that first freeze in case there are any hummers nearby that have lost their food source. I typically see an increase in the number of birds in my yard after a freeze.
The Broad-billed Hummingbirds that were reported in Florida a couple of years ago (one in Blountstown and the other in Jacksonville) were not reported until January. I believe they'd been coming to feeders for a few weeks prior to being reported but they probably didn't arrive until December. That bird alone is why I'd hang a feeder year round.
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