TRULY AMAZING

PLENTY OF FOOD LEFT ...

BUT IT WAS TIME TIME TO GO (Google photo)

Wednesday, 12:00 PM.  56 degrees F at the ferry dock, 52 on the back porch.  Wind NNE, very gusty. The sky has a high overcast and it is raining, more than a trace having fallen so far.  The humidity is 90% and the barometer is steady, at 30.32".  Looks like it will rain all day.
   The ruby-throated (our species) hummingbirds left for their annual epic migration across the Gulf of Mexico to South America while I was in the hospital.  They are usually gone from Bayfield by 15 September, the males leaving first.  It appears the females and immature males migrate after the mature males. Evidently the three or four week trip is taken individually, rather than in a flock. It is a daunting trip for these diminutive creatures,  who have to stop to rest and feed along the way.  The Gulf is 450 miles across, and they must fly it without stopping, often in horrible weather.  Many must indeed perish.
   I am not at all expert in these matters, so double-check anything I may allude to: but it seems hummingbirds and other creatures that migrate do so by the earth's magnetic field, in combination with orientation to the sun at different latitudes.  They will return to Bayfield next spring on or about 15 May.
  Truly amazing!