Hand Feeding Hummingbirds at Lake Hope: Hummingbirds Are Returning!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hummingbirds Are Returning!

While there's a couple of months before you can start handfeeding hummingbirds at Lake Hope State Park, it's not too early to hang the hummingbird feeders in your back yard! According to the Hummingbird Migration Map Ohio's first recorded hummingbird of the 2009 season was spotted in extreme southwest Ohio on March 31!

Here are some things to keep in mind when placing your feeders out this early:

1. Put only a very small amount of sugar water in your feeder AND change the feeder daily. This keeps the feeder fresh and you don't waste a lot of nectar. Fresh is important - you wouldn't want to drink a glass of koolaid left out for a few days!

2. Mix your nectar in a pitcher and keep it in the fridge to save time and effort.

3. The recipe: four (4) parts water mixed with one (1) part regular sugar. It's easiest if you dissolve your sugar in a small bit of warm water first, then add the rest of the water.

4. NO food coloring. It's simply not necessary and we don't know the effect artificial coloring has on the birds. The nectar they get in nature is not red - it's clear!

5. Keep your feeders clean but never use bleach or soap. Good, hot water is all it takes to clean your feeders. If they get sugary just let them soak in hot water for a little bit.

Check out the information that Ranger Dave Sapienza has on the Lake Hope State Park website.

While you're surfing around, check out the activities at the Lake Hope Nature Center for the 2009 season, including the upcoming Egg Hunt, hosted by the Friends of Lake Hope, on April 11 at 1 PM.

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'Hummingbirds' from Dave Sapienza, Lake Hope State Park Naturalist

Hi folks! We are excited here at the nature center to keep you updated on hand-feeding hummingbirds at Lake Hope and to share the history and wonderful nature that can be found at Lake Hope. We often get the question, “Where is Lake Hope?” Well, we are about 1.5 hours south of Columbus and about 30 minutes NW of Athens, Ohio. We enjoy being nestled among the hills of southern Ohio. We are surrounded by the 30,000 acre Zaleski State Forest. We have a small lake, great for fishing, canoeing, and swimming. We have plenty of hiking trails and our mountain bike trails were recently selected as “best in Ohio” by readers of Mountain Bike Magazine. Visitors can stay in the campground or in one of our rustic cottages, some of which were built in the 1930’s and feature woodburning fireplaces.

There are varying thoughts on the best nectar recipe for the hummingbirds. We use a mixture of FOUR parts water, ONE part white table sugar. We understand that this mixture best replicates the natural nectar found in flowers. We keep the nectar in the fridge and usually go through a couple gallons every other day or so. You can keep the mixture in the fridge for a couple of days before spoiling. Boiling the mixture is not necessary but may help preserve it longer. Just be sure the sugar gets dissolved in the water. Most hummingbird feeders have enough red to attract these curious critters, so we avoid red food coloring. We don’t know if it is harmful or not, but we have certainly learned the nectar does not need to be red to attract the birds. It is a good idea to plant salvias and other tube flowers so the birds can get nature’s original nectar. They also feed on small insects for necessary protein. Putting out a rotting banana can help attract small insects for them to eat, but they probably have no problem finding insects to eat.

If you enjoy feeding hummingbirds at home, be sure to take our “hummingbird feeding oath” which we strictly enforce! Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I promise to clean and fill my feeders daily”. We’ve talked with many people that fill their feeders, hang them, yet forget to clean and refill them! Hmmm…. When visitors here take the oath, they chuckle, but we hope it helps them remember to clean their feeders more than once a week. Cleaning them daily helps to provide fresh nectar for your hummingbirds and may prevent black molds and bacteria from building up.

We use a feeder made by a company called FirstNature….They produce a large and small version of the feeder. You can visit their webpage at www.firstnature.net
We like their feeders for a number of reasons:

(1) They are easy to clean because they break down into 3 parts, including a wide mouth nectar container. We use just a bottle brush and water to clean the feeders each day. We try to avoid soaps and chemicals which may be harmful.
(2) We can use these feeders year after year as they tend not to fade like other feeders.
(3) They have embossed flowers, no yellow parts, and a deep reservoir all discouraging visits from insects.

So, how did we start hand-feeding hummingbirds at Lake Hope? We’ve been putting regular feeders out for over 12 years now. One day as I was hanging a feeder, a bird zoomed in, landed and drank from the feeder. A lightbulb went on in my head that this would be a great program for visitors. That summer, we turned some park visitors into guinea pigs to sit outside and hold feeders. It worked within a week! A few birds every once and a while would take a drink. Since then, the program has evolved to 3 sessions a week on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from late June through Labor Day.

We have what some would call a “mini-cluster”…We can see as many as 15 hummers at once on some days. We have heard of “mega-cluster” locations with more than 50 birds at one time. It seems that the more years you feed, the more birds you will attract. Research shows that the hummingbirds tend to migrate back to where they were raised.

During the program. visitors get a floral tube filled with nectar with an attached red pipe cleaner to attract the birds. The pipe cleaner is just an added bonus now as it seems the birds are attracted to just the tubes. Some people twist the pipe cleaners into flower shapes to try to get the upper edge on others. But, after all these years of hand-feeding we have learned one thing. We have no idea what a hummingbird is thinking, if anything. Somedays they like women, sometimes men. Sometimes they love people dressed in red, other days they visit people wearing no red at all. Sometimes they love people in the shade. Sometimes they visit the feeders in the sun.

We share a few tips that help people get the birds to come to their hand feeders.
(1) Find a comfortable spot and stay there for the duration of the program
(2) Hold the feeder as still as possible
(3) If a bird hovers close by, don’t move the feeder towards them
(4) PATIENCE!

We do guarantee that the last person standing always hand-feeds. This can sometimes be hours after the program starts, but it holds true.

How To Use These Photos To Help The Lake Hope Nature Center

Lake Hope State Park is located by Zaleski, Ohio in Vinton County. It is part of the Zaleski State Forest. My daughter and I volunteer at their Nature Center once a week. If you see a photo of yourself, or a photo you would like a copy of, please contact me. I'm happy to email photo files (or you can save them from here, but I can send you larger, better looking files). If you use a photo from here, PLEASE give me credit - 'Photo by Deborah Berry, Berry Patch Designs'. If you're feeling generous, I encourage you to make a donation to The Friends of Lake Hope.
The Friends of Lake Hope is a non-profit group that exists solely for the purpose of supporting programs and projects at Lake Hope. Their current project is the building and equipping of a nature classroom - an addition to the current nature center. The foundation is laid, but it will take more money to complete and equip the classroom. I will gladly accept donations that I will pass along to The Friends of Lake Hope for the purpose of supporting the Nature Center. Contact me for details on helping out with your donations, or better yet, follow the Friends of Lake Hope Link below.

Hand Feeding Hummingbirds at Lake Hope

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hummingbirds Are Returning!

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'Hummingbirds' from Dave Sapienza, Lake Hope State Park Naturalist

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How To Use These Photos To Help The Lake Hope Nature Center

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