Winter warriors

… For it it is in the dew of little things we find our morning and are refreshed. Kahlil Gilbran 

It has been 15 months since our last post. We have excuses. But as convincing as our reasons may seem, as I begin to write they seem lame. And while it has over a year since our last post, it been ten years since our first post. Our first test of the blogging world was a post about hummingbirds in the snow. Now, mid February 2019, we have heaps of snow, and Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) dine at two feeders. Snow for us Puget Sounders is unpredictable, and this amount almost unprecedented. Excuses for not writing will continue to throw obstacles in my path, but I shall take the continued tenacity and adaptability of small birds as a nudge to lament less and celebrate more, this confluece of time and weather a nudge to return to writing.

no hummer or no camera or not focused -- oh well

Each feeder is guarded by a dominant hummingbird and stealthily visited by some determined usurpers. The main claimant feeds frequently and when not feeding he or she sits on a patrol branch scanning the territory for interlopers. Although the food resource is bountiful enough to share, sharing is an idea absent from a hummingbird’s temperament, and pitched battles are regularly waged with battering wings and menacing needle-like bills.

perched, watching

This warrior trait may aid their success. Beyond our own winter visitors we know there is a successful winter population of Anna’s here (in Olympia WA), in part because of the active correspondence we read on the neighborhood listserv. Numerous readers have shared weather alerts, and feeder advice during frigid temperatures, and how long they’ve been feeding and seeing hummingbirds in winter. (The gleanings about care follow.) We are certain that winter resident Anna’s will soon be joined by Rufous hummingbirds, (Selasphorus rufus), our early spring migrant, just as we are certain that power outages and ice are fleeting. But as I write we are still deeply in winter.

Like the Anna's, I choose to embrace the snow and accept the limitations and turmoil that the snow imposes. Snow disrupts routine and shakes loose sentiment, and reopens worlds of both joy and grief locked away forgotten. I am lucky that in me the optimism of the young man usually overpowers the fears of the aging one. Perhaps it is true that hummingbirds are guides to the spirit world. They are little but they are fierce and as our lives are upended by uncertainties I am filled with gratitudes that we have mighty little birds to both be faithful to and to lean on.

Glen


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Winter hummingbird tips and observations:
 • Mixing the sugar nectar: 1c water with 1/4c white sugar, no coloring, boiling water optional
 • The time they first show up to feed: 20 to 30 min before sunrise
 • How to keep the sugar syrup thawed when temperatures drop below ~ 28º F :
 = Bring feeder in each frozen night, replace before dawn — or
 = Microwave (30 seconds) in the morning, if feeder is free of metal — or
 = Wrap feeder with non-LED Christmas lights (note: LED’s don’t produce enough heat)
 = Daytime, if days also will be sub-freezing, tape a chemical toe warmer to the feeder’s underside.