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Re: Hummingbird feeding
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Re: Hummingbird feeding
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 11:59:00 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <8525683A.005512B4.00@intlnamsmtp20.us.pw.com>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Nicely put Steve. I should add two more points. First, the freezing point
of water drops dramatically when something is dissolved in it, sugar for
instance. While the temperature regularly drops below water's freezing
point in NC in the winter, it much more rarely (if ever) drops low enough
to freeze sugar water. My birdbath has frozen over a few times this
winter so far, but the hummingbird feeder has not.
Second, note that hummingbirds virtually never show up in an area where
hummingbird feeders are the only available food source. The Anna's last
winter came to Judy Walker's house because of her Pineapple Sage patch,
hence the sudden surge in this plant's popularity in NC. In my yard, the
feeder is up, but there are no flowers and as yet no Sapsuckers, and so
no hummers either. As Steve said, the feeders do not attract the hummers,
they just make them easier for us to observe. The scientific evidence on
seed and suet feeders seems to indicate that the same is true of them.
So keep on feedin'...
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/