Overwintering Anna’s Hummingbirds

Photo by Kirill Ignatyev

 
As many of us in Victoria and the south coastal region are well aware, we have a permanent, year-round population of Anna’s Hummingbirds. However, they may also be attempting to overwinter in the interior! If anyone in the BC interior happens to see any Anna’s Hummingbirds during the winter, please report your sightings to: hummingbird@rpbo.org

As hummingbirds are such an iconic, beloved bird for us here on the south coast, many people put out feeders with sugar water to help them overwinter. It’s always helpful to remind ourselves how to properly care for our feeders and how to make the correct nectar for our delightful visitors!

Hummingbirds are extremely territorial and they will zealously guard their own feeder from intruders. You may have noticed that your resident hummingbird comes to your feeder throughout the day, but is always there first thing in the morning and just before dark. If you would like to feed more than one hummingbird family, you can put out another feeder but make sure there is no direct line of sight between them.

The Perfect Sugar Solution

The best sugar solution can be made easily. Just boil 1 cup white table sugar (sucrose) with 4 cups water for 2 min, and then fill your feeder when it has cooled. Higher sugar concentrations, although enticing to the bird (think ice cream sundaes at every meal), have the potential to cause kidney damage and being sticky, make it difficult for the bird to preen. Please note that the use of brown sugar, honey, juice, icing sugar or artificial sweeteners instead of white sugar is very harmful to hummingbirds.

There is no need to purchase hummingbird food as just plain sugar solution is what they like and what is best for the them! Coloured sugar water is unnecessary as they can easily find your feeder just by its red colour. Also, red food colouring may be harmful to birds. Once they know where a feeder is, they will just keep coming back!

Winter Boost: During the winter season if you would like to give your resident birds an added sugar boost, you may increase the sugar solution to 3 parts to 1 (three cups of water to one cup of white sugar). More than that is not recommended for the health of hummingbirds and this percentage should not be used on a regular basis.

The dos and don’ts of feeding hummingbirds can be found on the RPBO website:

http://rpbo.org/hummingbirds.php

Winter Feeder Care

When the temperatures go below zero the sugar water may freeze – it’s important to either bring the feeder inside at night or figure out a way ensure that it stays liquid. Here are links with different ideas to prevent the sugar solution from freezing:

http://www.hummingbirdsplus.org/winterfeeder.html

http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/a/How-To-Keep-Hummingbird-Nectar-From-Freezing.htm

http://www.hummingbirdmarket.com/hummingbird_articles/feeding_hummingbirds_in_the_cold.html

It’s a good idea to place your feeder close to the house in a sheltered spot with an overhang as that will assist in keeping it somewhat warmer. LED lights do not generate heat so if you have the older style Christmas lights they will work. It’s also helpful to have 2 feeders so that you can switch them up when it is really cold, bringing one inside to warm up. Remember that your resident hummingbird will come to your feeder first thing every morning, so be sure to have it ready and waiting!

Keep Your Feeder Clean!

This cannot be emphasized enough! At this time of year your feeder needs cleaning about once a week. Look for black mold and fungus! Use a toothbrush to clean your feeder (the nooks and crannies) and use only mild cleaners (no bleach). There was an incident when hummingbirds were found dying around a particularly dirty feeder. Necropsies were done on the birds and fungus was found in the lining of their respiratory system – they could not breathe! So if you go to the effort of keeping a feeder available for your resident hummers, then it doesn’t take much more work to keep it clean!

If you would like to read more about the feeding of hummingbirds and care of feeders, here are some links below. Let’s keep our feathered friends happy and healthy during these cold days!

http://www.hummingbirdsplus.org/Attracting&FeedingHummingbirds.html

http://www.hummingbirds.net/feeders.html

http://www.wildbirdshop.com/Birding/humfeed.html

2014 Migration and Nocturnal Owl Monitoring

Migration Monitoring

It’s better late than never! Here is a recap of our 2014 Migration Monitoring at our two banding stations for this year over the 90 day period from July 21st to October 18^th.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Pedder Bay Station

At the Pedder Bay station we banded 3056 new birds, had 1117 recaptures and a total of 60 species. The five top banded birds were: Fox Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler, Swainson's Thrush, and Golden-crowned Sparrow in that order. Some of our exciting rarities banded were: a Brewer's Sparrow, a Northern Pygmy Owl, and a Black-throated Blue Warbler

 Black-throated Blue Warbler

Northern Pygmy Owl

It is wonderful for Rocky Point to have the Pedder Bay station which is open to the public. We had many visitors this year for both daytime passerine banding and for Northern Saw-whet Owls at night. Both children and adults were fascinated to watch us in action and our banders, interns and volunteers are happy to explain the process to everyone who comes out. It is part of achieving our mandate as outlined below!

“Rocky Point Bird Observatory seeks to influence and inform conservation and ecological management practises of migratory birds in western North America through monitoring, scientific research and public education.”

Rocky Point Bird Observatory Station

The final totals for 2014 migration banding at Rocky Point were: 2694 new birds, 406 recaptures, 4 foreign recaptures and 65 species. The 5 top numbers of species were: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Wilson's Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Golden-crowned Kinglet and White-crowned Sparrow. Some of the more unusual birds banded there this year were: Gray-cheeked Thrush (instantly recognizable to our Ontario Bander-in Charge, Brian Pomfret), Northern Pygmy Owl, Nashville Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Violet-green Swallow and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

Nashville Warbler

Barred Owl caught in the early morning

 Marsh Wren

BBQ Fundraisers

We also had 2 very successful fundraising BBQs at Pedder Bay with delicious salmon burgers (salmon donated by the Pedder Bay Marina), followed by a presentation by Ann Nightingale who explained RPBO’s ongoing projects. Then everyone was invited to the banding station to watch Northern Saw-whet Owls being caught, measured and banded. Not surprisingly, both BBQs sold out quickly; these endearing small owls are a treat to see up close and personal!

Northern Saw-whet Owl Monitoring

Owl banding operated from September 15^th until October 31^st. This year, for the first time RPBO operated 2 full time banding stations for owls. Last year we operated out of Pedder Bay only on weekends. We were not expecting 2014 to be such a big year for owls. So, needless to say, we were very surprised by the number of owls caught and banded! It was evidently a very productive year for them. Some of the hatch year birds had very recently fledged, as evidenced by the tawny colouring on their faces and under the wings, indicating some owls had more than one brood.

Northern Saw-whet Owls banded in 2014:
Pedder Bay 482 Rocky Point 681
Total: 1163

We were thrilled to have one of the owls which was banded at Pedder Bay on September 16 recaptured in Idaho at the Intermountain Bird Observatory on October 4.We have now added a Google map on our website which shows the location of our NSWO recaps (both foreign birds we've recaptured and our birds that have been encountered elsewhere). The map can be found on both our Band recoveries page (http://rpbo.org/recoveries.php) and on our NSWO reports page (http://rpbo.org/reports.php?pgm=nswo).

Congratulations and Thanks!

Special congratulations to RPBO interns and volunteers, Acacia Spencer-Hills, Christian Kelly, Serena Johnston and Wallis Moore-Reid on obtaining their banding permits this season!

A big thanks to our passerine Banders-in-Chief: Brian Pomfret at Rocky Point and Rick Schortinghuis at Pedder Bay; and also to our owl BICs: Katie McCreesh and Christian Kelly. Our two interns this year – Serena Johnston and Acacia Spencer-Hills – were fantastic and did an excellent job. Thanks to Ann Nightingale for absolutely everything she does (which is a LOT), keeping everything on track and functioning smoothly. Ann Scarfe deserves special mention for overseeing the WhenToHelp schedule, ensuring that there enough people at both stations day and night – no easy task! And of course a huge thank you to all of our volunteers and supporters who help in so many ways and without whom RPBO could not function.