Mister Anna

Day 78: By and large, people in northern climes tend to regard hummingbirds as summer visitors and consequently take their feeders down when cold weather sets in. I might have had Anna's long before the first one showed up, but for the fact that I did exactly that: stopped putting out the food as soon as I was sure the Rufouses were gone. A few years ago, though, I spotted a solitary Anna's in my dogwood tree during the summer. A little later in the year, it was joined by a couple more and, to my great amazement, they didn't leave with the Rufous gang. I kept the feeders stocked all winter, bringing them in at night when the temps plunged below freezing, returning them to the hangers before first light so that the birds newly emerged from nighttime torpor could find an easy breakfast. Those first few Anna's spread the word, and now I have nearly as many in winter as I do in summer, but of course in summer, the Rufous crowd returns in equivalent numbers. I have seen one bird which I was sure was Costa's (a male) and another which may have been a Costa's/Anna's hyrbrid. Winter hummer-watching can be a lot more rewarding than you might expect!