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The Rockport/Fulton Hummer/Bird Celebration 2007 Is Almost Here!
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For a very long time now the Ruby-throated Hummingbird has graced this area by stopping here each fall, spending some time storing energy for their continued migration south and thoroughly delighting everyone who sees them.
 What's the HUMMER/BIRD Celebration?
The HUMMER/BIRD Celebration is an annual event held each September in the charming and friendly coastal towns of Rockport and Fulton. The purpose is to celebrate the spectacular fall migration of the Ruby-throated hummingbird through the area, first documented by Connie Hagar in 1938, and to expand one's knowledge of all birds, and associated wildlife.
The Celebration is fun, educational and inspiring. There is something for everyone and it's designed for those who just enjoy birds to the more experienced birder. If you enjoy nature, or some aspect of it, then this event is for you.
Imagine over 80 hummers in one yard, a dozen swarming around each feeder, more perched, waiting their turn in the trees and bushes. Multiply this by the number of gardens and hummer-friendly backyards in the Texas coastal towns of Rockport and Fulton, and you have the unbelievable scene of the annual Hummer/Bird Celebration!
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, in the process of migrating from North America, usess this area of Texas as a staging area. Hummers worn out from their journey to Rockport/Fulton get to rest their little weary wings a bit and fatten up on the nectar from flowers and feeders. Then they will be gone, flying non-stop 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Pennisula in Central America where they will spend the winter.
How did the name of the celebration come about?
When Betty Baker (enthused birder and volunteer) and Jesse Grantham (National Audubon Sanctuaries Manager) began developing this event, their intent was to bring attention to this great phenomena of the fall migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds. They wanted everyone to not just focus on hummingbirds but all birds during the tremendously beautiful fall migration. Hence came the name Hummer/Bird Celebration. A Celebration, not a festival with tents and carnivals, but a learning experience.
Hummer Home Tours
Local homes and businesses plant and maintain their yards year round to attract hummingbirds. During the event, you are invited to visit their yards to see the plants that lure the birds and to see them feeding in preparation for their incredible journey south. It is possible to see over 100 hummingbirds in one yard. A self-guided tour map is available at any information booth. You’ll find a sign red in color and made in the shape of a hummingbird placed in front of the Hummer Home. Walk quietly to the residence.
Workshops: | Other activities: | - Photography
- Bird songs/calls
- Hummingbird rescue and rehab
- Gardening for hummers and butterflies
- Goose behavior
- Ecotourism
- The Hummingbird Roundup program
- Birds of prey
- Bird identification
| - Boat tours
- Vendor Booths selling bird related merchandise
- Bus Tours for Bird Watchers
- Watch Hummingbird Banding
- Home Tours
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A Note to Teachers!
TEA gives contact hours for attending this event. The Hummer/Bird Celebration is endorsed by the Texas Education Agency. Contact hours in environment education are available through which teachers may obtain a Recognition of Environmental Education Achievement from the Texas Environmental Education Advisory Committee.
2007 Hummer/Bird Celebration:
When: September 13th to 16th, 2007 Where: Towns of Rockport/Fulton Who: Speakers During the Celebration To read more details regarding this year's celebration visit the official page. |
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By
Kenya @
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:30 AM |
September is prime time for ruby-throated hummingbirds at backyard feeders in Georgia. Hordes of the tiny, southbound birds are stopping at feeders to sip their weight in nectar and store enough energy to fuel their perilous journeys to winter grounds in Mexico and Central America.
So, it's not surprising that we get many questions this time of year about feeding these little flying jewels. Here are some recent reader questions and the answers from various experts:
Q: What is the best food to put in hummingbird feeders?
A: The tried-and-true solution is four parts water to one part sugar. If you're using regular granulated sugar, bring the mixture to a boil so that the sugar melts in the water. Let it cool before putting it in the feeders. Superfine sugar will dissolve easily in cold water. There's no need to add a red dye — the red color of the feeders is enough to attract the little birds.
Q: How do you keep house finches and other birds away from hummingbird feeders?
A: The best way is to use a feeder without perches and flared bases.
Q: How far apart should hummingbird feeders be placed?
A: Some say group your feeders together; others say place them several feet apart. But perhaps the best answer is to try one strategy, and if that doesn't work, try another — especially if you have an aggressive male that's chasing away other birds. One expert recommends hanging three feeders — one on the west, one on the south and one on the east side of the house. Others say the best setup is one feeder in the front yard and one in the backyard.
Try to locate your feeder in shade or partial shade. Direct sunlight can make the nectar go bad or even ferment. The best spot for a feeder is on a pole in a flower bed or hung on a porch or deck near flowers that the birds are attracted to.
Q: How do I keep ants out of my hummingbird feeders?
A: Perhaps the best way is to buy an ant trap that prevents the pesky insects from getting into the feeders. An ant trap, or "ant moat," is simply a little cup that holds water and is hung from the bottom of the feeder. Ant traps are usually sold where hummingbird feeders are sold. Of course, you have to make sure the trap is filled with water.
Q: What about wasps, hornets and bees at the feeders?
A: One solution: Trap them. Wasp/bee traps, which also can be purchased in stores, are plastic, globe-shaped, covered reservoirs that can be baited with sugar water or kitchen scraps and hung near feeders to lure the stinging insects inside.
Most nature stores also have wasp-proof hummingbird feeders for sale.
In addition, some say you can simply fool the insects by moving your feeder only a few feet away. The insects will think their food source has disappeared, but the hummingbirds will hardly notice the change. If that doesn't work, take the feeder down for a couple of days. The hummingbirds will return long before the insects rediscover it, if they ever do.
Q: How often should I clean my feeder?
A: Here's what the Georgia Hummers organization says: Flush out your feeders with hot water once a week. If it's very hot outside, clean it twice a week. Do not use any soap or cleaner — just hot water. Use a bottle brush to scrub the inside if needed. Every month, soak the feeder in a very weak bleach solution for about an hour. The solution should be 1/4 cup of bleach to a gallon of water.
Q: Does feeding hummingbirds deter them from migrating?
A: No. The instinct to migrate is much stronger than your offer of free nectar.
Q: When should I take down my feeder?
A: Nearly all of the ruby-throats, the only hummingbirds that nest in Georgia, will be gone by late October. However, experts advise that you leave one feeder up and full all winter because several hummingbird species, most notably the rufous hummingbird, may visit Georgia during the cold months. |
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By
Kenya @
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 5:53 PM |
The sight of a hummingbird zooming into a backyard, magically hovering in midair, dipping into a flower for a sip of nectar and zipping away — all within 10 or 15 seconds — usually draws the same delighted reaction: “Did you see that?”
But if seeing just one hummingbird is a thrill, imagine watching a few hundred at one time. For several weeks in September, as thousands upon thousands of ruby-throated hummingbirds pass through towns near the Gulf of Mexico in their fall migration, thousands of people gather to watch them. Visitors flock to nature centers and backyards to watch the frenzy at the hummingbird feeders, and organized festivals offer speakers, workshops and hummingbird-themed goods to buy. Participants see large numbers of these tiny metallic-green birds up close and can learn one amazing thing after another about them.
While large numbers of hummingbirds make their way to winter habitats in South and Central America by hugging the coastline, others take an express route across the Gulf of Mexico. The nonstop flight can be more than 500 miles long and last up to 20 hours, sobering numbers if you’re 3.5 inches long, weigh slightly more than a penny and have little or no ability to glide, eaglelike, on strong winds. To pull off this marathon, the birds must first fatten up. (Remarkably, they have the ability to double their body weight in 7 to 10 days.) Hummingbird enthusiasts happily oblige by hanging feeders filled with sugar water, the next best thing to flower nectar.
“People who visit the houses get really excited to see so many birds at once,” said Ernie Edmundson, an organizer for the 19th annual Hummer/Bird Celebration, in Rockport, Texas, about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi. “Some people camp out all day.”
Edmundson is one of two dozen volunteers who will open their Rockport-area properties to the public for four days starting Thursday. She expects to hang 8 to 10 feeders and, during peak activity, refill them all twice a day. “Sometimes we’ll have close to 1,000 birds in a single day,” she said.
Lamar Story, the chairman of the Rockport event, said he went through 40 pounds of sugar last year during the two-month-long hummingbird migration, which starts in mid-August and tapers off to a few stragglers by mid-October. At peak season, his yard is full of the birds. “It sounds like you’re standing in the middle of a beehive,” he said. “The birds will be buzzing all around you.”
Despite the undeniable cuteness of ruby-throated hummingbirds (only the male has the red throat), story reports that they pack a serious mean streak. “I have seen really aggressive ones chase others off the feeder clear out of sight,” he said.
They are also curious. “They’ll come right up to you and hover right in front of your face to check you out,” Story said. One bird couldn’t take his eyes off a flower-patterned hat worn by a woman visiting his yard. “That bird nearly landed on her head,” he said, “it was so interested in the flowers.”
Rockport’s festival will include speakers and seminars at the local high school about birds of prey, dragonflies and wildlife-attracting landscaping. Vendors will sell hummingbird-themed T-shirts, jewelry and decorative feeders. Festivals in Holly Springs, Miss., and Lake Jackson, Texas, will have similar events.
At the Folsom Hummingbird Festival, in Folsom, La., Jim Mizell said visitors to his farm will see not only hummingbirds but butterflies as well, including monarchs, which are also heading south.
Madge Lindsay, director for Audubon Mississippi, is based at the Strawberry Plains Audubon Center and has watched the hummingbird migration year after year. “It never gets old,” she said. “The looks of disbelief on people’s faces when they see so many birds in the gardens and at the feeders is priceless.” |
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