Feeding my Hummers

I'm doing another story about one of my favorite topics, Hummingbirds. Some of you reading this blog might have already read about this story of when I fed the Hummers at my job at South Coast botanic Gardens on the Palos Verdes Peninsula through emails that I have sent out. As many of you already know, I used to teach children's gardening and nature study classes at the Gardens, and I maintained Hummingbird feeders around the childrens area, both for the teaching opportunities and just for the pleasure of watching the antics of the Hummers as they fed on the sugar water in the feeders. We had so many Hummingbirds using the feeders that they needed to be filled two times a day, so my first job in the mornings was to clean and fill the feeders, and then usually just before going home for the night, I would have to fill them again. Many days when I had classes going, I would have kids who wanted to help with the cleaning and filling of the feeders.

We had a large outdoor sink area that served a variety of uses. Vegetables harvested from the gardens were cleaned there before they went home with the children. Also this is where all the gardening tools were cleaned before being put away after using them. There were several sinks so it allowed more than one person at a time to use them. This was also where we made up the sugar water solution to put in the feeders. Each feeder was cleaned out with a brush before it was re-filled with the food.

When I would arrive at the Gardens in the mornings, usually the feeders would be mostly empty, and the Hummers would be hungry. I would gather up the feeders and take them to the sink area and proceed to get them ready to be filled. As the Hummers were familiar with my routine, they would tend to congregate near the sink area while I was working. There was one particular male Hummingbird that was a little more impatient than the others and he would perch himself on the sink faucet handle to wait for the first feeder to be filled. Once the first one was filled, he would hover right in front of me waiting for me to attach the bottom part to the feeder, turn it over and then right there, he would drink and drink from the feeder like it was going to be his last meal! When he was satisfied, off he would go...perhaps to hunt out his favorite flowers so he could get more food! Then as I would carry the feeders back to the locations where they would hang, I would be followed by several Hummers darting around me excitedly in anticipation of them being hung up so they too could drink their fill!

I was told, but haven't confirmed this from anyone else, but did you know that during the winter months, when the nights are so long, that Hummingbirds need to find food and eat within the first 20 minutes of waking up or they will starve to death! Talk about a precarious situation to be in! Makes me feel good about always keeping my feeders full for them.

That's all for this time. Hope you enjoy my posts.

Ron, the Plant Man