Questions and musings‏ Cindy Klein 12/10/12

The presence of seemingly so many overwintering Anna's Hummingbirds has raised a lot of questions for me.

Last winter was relatively mild. Were there also more overwintering birds then? Would the overwintering birds have more of an advantage for early and more successful breeding?

We did not notice any at our place after mid-September of 2012. This year the last of the fuschias were still blooming in early October and we had three ANHU's hanging around. We made the decision to put the feeder back out after a frost took out the rest of the blooms.

I had read somewhere that Ruby Throated Hummingbirds were overwintering instead of migrating in areas of the southeast because people were leaving feeders out for them. How much has human "help" influenced Anna's in this part of the country?

Do the Anna's that survive the winter here defend the territories they have established as the seemingly ( at least to my observations) more agressive Rufous Hummingbirds move in? Our experience with Anna's here has been that they are usually on the periphery and we only occasionally see them during the summer and most often when the Rufous crowds have thinned out in the fall.

How far north have they been sighted in the winter?

The male that has been at our place was still here today. He gives me a piece of his mind whenever I'm in hailing distance. It's a relief to know he is still here.That a creature so tiny could survive such temperature extremes is mind boggling!

Cindy K.

• Everson Anna's‏

The second Anna's  I ever saw was an adult male at our first Everson house in the fall of 77 (the first was on the 75 CBC).  During the recent cold weather I heard a hummer near our north fence and yesterday the neighbor lady fessed up that she has a feeder up and has at least two coming to it.  Paul