I had been seeing an occasional ruby throated hummer for several weeks now. With our citrus and other fruit trees all blooming there was plenty natural flowers for them and they could be seen flitting through the thick branches of the trees. The flowers are now dropping making room for tiny fruit so we noticed the fluid level begin to go down in our feeder. Well it has been raining hard for a couple days now and I just noticed several of them both male and female buzzing around the feeder. When it rains hard it washes the necter from flowers and thats why they are always more active at your feeder after a rain. The flowers aren't as sweet for a few hours.
I need to remember to change out the food in my feeders, with all the rain, their food has been diluted.
Cheryl, unless you have open saucer feeders, the syrup won't be diluted. We have this kind http://www.birdfeeders.com/store/hummingbird-feeders/8119-2 of feeder but with a clear bottle, and a two piece bottom piece that is so easy to clean. We got ours at Ace Hardware, but I believe Walmart has a very similar feeder. We love watching the hummingbirds come in to feed as we are having our morning coffee, and again at dinner time!
I have hummers the year round and I used a plant saucer to help protect the food and the birds. Number two pictures shows two hummers in the snow.
Jane... I can tell that it's diluted because it has more fluid in it than it did yesterday! It was about time to change it anyhow, it was over a week old.
Chery that is super. Can't wait for them to get to Wisconsin. Kildale--wow that is so neat to have them year round. I didn't know they wintered over in your part of the country.
