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THE TIMING OF THE FALL RUBYTHROAT MIGRATION
If you have been feeding hummingbirds, you have probably noticed that the number of rubythroats visiting your feeders has dropped significantly. This reason for this is rubythroats are heading south on their fall migration. Interestingly, the timing of their departure is dependent on their sex and age. Let’s take a quick look at the timing of the migration in Georgia.
If you take a close look at the birds visiting your feeders, you will notice that currently few adult males are still using your feeders. The reason for this is adult males are the first to leave. While some adult males will begin migration as early as July, most will leave in August. The adult females are the next to leave they begin their southward trek in August. The last to depart are the hummers that hatched this year. Most of these birds migrate in September.
THE BEST HUMMINGBIRD FOOD
During July and August Georgians typically feed more ruby-throated hummingbirds than at any other time of the year. I know that is the case at my home. For weeks, the demand of sugar water has been so great my wife has been making 20 cups of nectar every other day to keep up with the hummingbirds’ demand for the sugary treat.
Whenever you are feeding hummingbirds, you want to be sure that you are feeding them the right food. With that in mind, here is the recipe for the best hummingbird food. Boil a mixture containing 4 parts water and 1-part white table sugar for minutes. Allow the nectar to cool and store in your refrigerator.
During the extremely hot weather that has been roasting Georgia for weeks, it is best to replace the nectar in your feeders every 3 days or so.
FEEDING BIRDS SEEDS DURING THE SUMMER CAN BE CHALLENGING
Feeding seeds to birds during the summer can be more challenging than during the winter months. One of the main reasons for this is in the summer the high humidity and heat encourages mold and bacteria to contaminate seeds. As a result, birds that dine on contaminated food are more likely to become infected by a number of diseases. Here are a few tips that will help you prevent this from happening.
During the summer, you often have to clean feeders every 3-5 days in order to discourage a buildup of dangerous bacteria and mold. Clean feeders with soap and water. Follow this up by disinfecting them with a solution of nine parts water and one part bleach. Dry the feeders before refilling them with seeds.
Some seeds are safer to use in summer. One of these is black oil sunflower seed. These seeds can be fed shelled and unshelled.
White millet also can resist mold and bacteria however, if you scatter it on the ground, the millet seeds will spoil quicker than they will if fed in feeders.
Avoid feeding mixed seed during the summer. The reason for this is it contains ingredients that quickly become contaminated (e.g. cracked corn and milo). Peanuts also spoil quickly in humid, hot weather.
TIPS THAT HELP OFFERING HUMMERS FRESH NECTAR
With heat indexes almost daily soaring above 110°F, the nectar we offer our hummingbird neighbors can quickly spoil. With that in mind, here are a couple of simple tips that help ensure that rubythroats will be dining on nectar that has not spoiled.
While summer temperatures soar, the hummingbird nectar we provide in the feeders’ spoils more rapidly than it does when temperatures are not excessively hot. With that in mind, if you are using large feeders that take hummingbirds days to drain, put them away and use smaller feeders. In addition, it is a good idea to replace the unused fluid in your feeders every couple of days.
If you notice that the nectar in a feeder is cloudy, immediately discard it. That is a sure sign that it is no longer fresh.
ARE SQUIRRELS DETERRED BY COFFEE GROUNDS?
Recently it has been reported that coffee grounds spread below bird feeders deter squirrels from visiting bird feeding stations.
Before I recommend this practice, I want to know if you have tried this technique. If you have experimented with it, please let me know his bizarre practice actually works.
CONTAINER GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE MADE EASIER
Gardening for wildlife is being adopted by an increasing number of gardeners each year. One form of wildlife gardening that is growing by leaps and bounds is gardening in containers.
While container gardening is nothing new, growing plants that are of value to wildlife is. Container gardening for wildlife allows gardeners to attract wildlife to small places. In addition, is allows people that are physically unable to engage in traditional gardening to continue their hobby.
One of the problems that plagues container gardening is moving large pots from one spot to another. A large container full of soil is very heavy and difficult to move about. In addition, it can be quite expensive to buy enough soil to fill a large pot.
An excellent way to solve this problem is to fill third to half of the pot with a lightweight filler. Innovative gardeners are using variety fillers such as plastic bottles, bags and nursery pots as fillers Some even employ large chunks of Styrofoam. Others are using organic fillers such as pinecones, and wood chips.
If you want to make container gardening for wildlife less expensive and easier, you should consider using lightweight materials as fillers.
If you have used this technique, I would appreciate it if would let me know if your efforts proved to be successful.
BACKYARD SECRET – HOW MANY BIRDS VISIT OUR FEEDERS?
If you have ever wondered how many species of birds visit our feeders, here are some figures you might find interesting.
Across the country, some 350 species of birds feed at our feeders. Ninety of these species are either regular or casual diners. The remaining 260 species are rare visitors.
Here in the Peach State, those of us that feed birds in our yards can attract as many as 25-35 species to our bird cafes.
How many species of birds do you feed in your backyard?
BACKYARD SECRET – GRAY SQUIRRELS EAT BONES
One the wonderful things about wildlife watching is every day when you walk outside you have a chance of spotting an animal you have never seen before, or observing wildlife engaged in a behavior you have never witnessed. A few days ago, my daughter, Angela, saw a gray squirrel do something that she had never seen.
As far was my daughter is concerned, she sees squirrels in her backyard far too often. While she doesn’t have anything against the agile tree inhabitants, her major complaint is they eat more than their share of the seeds and suet she offers her bird neighbors. Then on top of that, they destroy her feeders. That being said, they engage in some fascinating behaviors. A few days ago, she witnessed a gray squirrel do something she had never seen before.
As she idly watched a squirrel scampering down the top of the 6-foot wood fence that stands along the backside of her yard, she noticed it was carrying a bone about four inches long and about the width of a nickel. It looked to be one of the bones left by her dog.
When she told me about the experience, I told her that she was probably correct since gray squirrels do eat bones. While gray squirrels devour a variety bones, they are particularly fond of those that are sun-bleached.
Gray squirrels dine bones for a couple of reasons. First of all, the bones help wear down their front teeth. This is necessary because these teeth continually grow throughout their lives. If the squirrels do not gnaw on hard bones the teeth will continue to grow and eventually curl and prevent the animals from eating.
The second reason is bones are an excellent source of much-needed calcium and phosphorus.
If you happen to see gray squirrels carrying or eating bones in your yard, you will know why they are engaged in this bizarre behavior.
Isn’t it amazing what you can see taking place just outside your backdoor?
WILDLIFE LOVE BLACKBERRIES
I have a seemingly endless fight with blackberries. Our wildlife neighbors spread blackberry seeds throughout our yard. Consequently, I have to pull up new plants that pop up in our lawn, gardens, and shrubs. That being said I do not try to eradicate them when those plants that grow in the edge of property. I do this because blackberries rank near the top of the list of foods favored by both mammals and birds. More than 100 species of wildlife consume blackberries. Juicy blackberries are just beginning to ripen in my neck of the woods, and birds are already feasting on them.
The list of critters that eat wild blackberries includes the raccoon, chipmunk, and gray squirrel. Some of the numerous birds that dine on blackberries includes the northern bobwhite, wild turkey, great crested flycatcher, American and fish crows, Baltimore and orchard orioles, indigo bunting, cardinal, gray catbird, Eastern bluebird, yellow-breasted chat, eastern towhee, cedar waxing, and woodpeckers such as the red-bellied and red-headed, brown thrasher, and white-throated sparrow.
If we are lucky, my wife and I try to grab few blackberries before the birds gobble them up.
I should also mention that rabbits and deer eat the plants’ tender stems and leaves.
In addition to being a great source of food, many birds and other animals use blackberry patches as nesting and escape cover.
Wild blackberries are indeed an important part of the diverse wildlife habitat that exists just outside our backdoor.