The Winged Warlords of the Wind: Part 2

Amid all the fighting, there was a few moments for some striking photos. One of my favorites this hummingbird season has to be one of a juvenile hummingbird feeding on a dahlia.

I love when I can capture the feisty fliers on flowers instead of the feeder. It's a little harder to catch them on posies than at the feeder. They have more choices and their speedy nature makes it difficult to get things in focus.

In past observances over the years, there are times when the feeders are popular and times when the flowers are more sought after.

I pondered why this would be. I could understand that the hummers would seek nectar at feeders in times of drought. However, I questioned as to why would they choose flowers over free food at a feeder.

The answer may be in what is dubbed "nectar flow." This subject came up when talking to a coworker who is raising honeybees. While most of the articles on nectar flow were from bee experts, I couldn't help but think the same would be true for hummingbirds and butterflies.

An article from The Savannah Bee Company titled, "What Makes the Honey Flow!" offered up some great insight on nectar flow.

"Nectar has a high water content, so annual rainfall plays an important role in nectar flow. During drought years, nectar flow can be weak or limited by the plants lack of water. But, too much rain during the flowering season can dilute the dissolved sugar content of the nectar. Heavy rain can also wash the nectar reservoir right out of the flower!," the post stated.
The website went on to say that wind is another variable in nectar production.

"High winds that are sustained for long periods of time can actually dry nectar pools inside the flowers. ...Wind can quickly dry up soil moisture and will increase plant transpiration and evaporation rates. Although this type of water loss may be small, it could reduce nectar production as the water moves more rapidly through the plant instead of being allocated to nectar production," the post continued.
Nectar, while it is important to honeybees, is also very essential for hummingbirds.

"Hummingbirds routinely ingest more than their own weight in nectar each day..," penned author Noah Strycker in his book "The Thing With Feathers".
With all the fighting and flitting there's no doubt the that the winged warriors need a lot of food.

They especially need it during migration.

"The ruby-throated hummingbird routinely fly more than five hundred miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico during it spring and fall migrations taking about 20 hours to do so,"  Strycker wrote.
A post on hummingbird facts on The Cornell Lab's All About Birds website stated that ruby-throated hummingbird beats its wings about 53 times a second.

This undoubtedly burns a lot of nectar.

The post identified the hummingbird as "eastern North America’s sole breeding hummingbird" and stated that folks should "Enjoy them while they’re around; by early fall they’re bound for Central America, with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight."

Locally, birder Gary Edwards in his book "Birds of Venango County" said the ruby-throated hummers arrive in mid April an departs by early October.

He wrote that some times there is some confusion in identifying female hummers and juveniles as they don't have the red throat yet.

Edwards also penned that hummingbirds observed after Oct. 9 deserve a second look as some western hummingbirds make a visit to Pennsylvania in the late fall.

"On Sept. 23, 2005, Nancy Baker photographed and identified the county's only rufous hummingbird record at her feeder in Oakland Township," Edwards reported in his book.

As the buzz around the feeder has died down some, it is nice to know that I still may have about a month to stalk these beautiful and busy creatures.

I wish them well on their migration journey and hope to see them again next year.

Some of the photos will be lovely flowery photos. Others may be down right cage matches. 

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

Read part one by following this link.