HUMMINGBIRD FALL MIGRATION

PLENTY OF FOOD LEFT ...

BUT IT WAS TIME TIME TO GO (Google photo)

Friday, 8:00 AM.  65 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind ENE, very light.  The sky is overcast and cloudy after a  rain shower again last night.  The humidity is 95%, the barometer steady for now, at 29.85".  High today around 65, warming tomorrow and then dropping again, with mixed skis and chances of rain for the week ahead.
   The ruby throated (our species) hummingbirds have evidently left for their annual epic migration across the Gulf of Mexico to South America (some go to Mexico and Central America).  They are usually gone from Bayfield by 15 September, the males leaving first, and I have seen none at the feeder or  flowers on hanging baskets  for some days; Joan says she thinks they all left by Tuesday, the twelfth.  

    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 distinct 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!

   To track hummingbird migrations and find out more about them, go to The Hummingbird-Guide.com

Simon Clark Aug 2012

The Hummingbird

Hummingbird:
Small,
Fast,
Beating wings,
Hovers,
Dashes,
Darts,
Pretty,
Clever,
True,
Cuts,
Darts,
Dashes,
Hovers,
Beating wings,
Fast,
Small:
Hummingbird.