The Secret: Wishing for Hummingbirds in the Pikes Peak Region
Many of you will see at least one Hummingbird around the middle of April. Let’s give that day a name to help us remember when to put our feeders out, oh maybe something like TAX DAY. One fine day you see (or more likely hear) a hummingbird, but then nothing more happens. Days go by weeks go by and still no more hummingbirds. What did you do wrong?
You made your nectar 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. You used table sugar, not brown, powdered, or artificial and never ever honey. (Splenda® and other artificial sweeteners have no nutrition. Honey can grow a harmful fungus. Using these will kill.) Your feeder was clean and hung somewhere out in the open, easy to be seen from above and no Hummingbirds came, so you just gave up.
Cheer up, don’t take this personally. It is not your fault. You just live in a non-Hummingbird breeding part of the region. In other words, they came buzzing by on TAX DAY, but they quickly moved on to their nesting areas. Your sister over in Manitou, your Mom out in Black Forest, and your very best friend from Monument are no better than you at attracting Hummingbirds, they just have geography on their side. Nothing you can do about bad geography, except wait. Because the good news is: on a day in mid July, let’s call it 11 days after Independence Day, you can attract your very own Hummingbirds.
After all that breeding stuff is finished, hummers start moving around looking for some new feeding opportunities. Lots of other hummers that migrated around us to go north are headed south and looking for layovers with a hospitable person like yourself. A yard with clean feeders, fresh nectar (changed every 3 to 4 days), and maybe even a garden full of flowers will do the trick in spite of your geographical limitations.
The moral of the story is your Hummingbird season will depend on where you live. Everyone can host hummers from mid July into September. And please forget that old wives’ tale about taking down your feeder so that the Hummingbirds will migrate. When thousands of years of instinct kick in, they will go. Do keep your feeder up for a week or so after you have seen your last hummer. Those young stragglers could use the boost to keep going on their long journey.