When the Hummingbirds Left
Ending a strange year for them here in the mountains of western New Mexico
Two years ago, praise God, we had scores of hummingbirds visiting our feeders. So many of them fought over the sugar water I put out each morning that I added a second feeder for them.
If you want to read about them and see photographs of all the different kinds that graced us and our yard, here is that piece:
This year only a handful came to feed. All of them appeared young and local. Probably they hatched from nests close to our cabin. They flew to and fro for several weeks.
The terrible wildfires in the western parts of the United States forced surviving hummingbirds to fly further east than our area of New Mexico. For information on those fires please check this link and/or this one. These fires explain, at least to me, why we saw so few of these beautiful birds in late summer and fall of 2022.
Given all the issues these little powerhouse birds faced this year, we felt blessed to have even that handful of “hummers”!
However, one morning a few weeks ago the temperature fell to below 38 degrees Fahrenheit and I did not see a single one of those few hummingbirds until about three days later when one took a few sips from our feeder and disappeared again.
After a couple more days there were about five back and frequenting our feeder. They stayed around for quite a few weeks, praise God, and then two disappeared.
Last week we started having rain almost every day, which we badly needed. For a few days the hummers hung around. But about four days ago no one showed up after a particularly long and hard rain with plenty of lightning and thunder.
I am fairly certain that they are now gone until next spring.
Almost a quarter of October wizzed but and the daylight no longer lasts nearly as long. Many birds seem to time their migrations by the amount of sun that God’s amazing system of our planet’s seasons provides. This link tells you more about how the amount of daylight affects hummingbird migration.
Now the hummingbird feeder looks lonely hanging out on the porch but it will stay there a while longer in case some migrant hummingbirds need a snack on their way through our yard. God willing, hummingbirds will fill our air again next year.
May God fill your life with the beauty of nature and all the wonderful birds and other creatures that I am blessed to see. I pray that connection to the natural world fills you with as much joy and peace as it does me.
