It's Getting Time Here in the East

The much-anticipated 2016 Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration has begun.  A few birds are already reported as far north as North Carolina and Tennessee.  So despite our brief chilly weather Spring has definitely appeared.

You can click to enlarge

Better yet, click on the link provided below to go to the Website

The tracking and reporting interactive map is posted HERE.  Keep in mind these are not scientific reports, but reports from anyone.  If you see a Ruby-throated Hummingbird in your area and it hasn't been reported, you can click on the map and report it.

Watch the map and put out your nectar before the birds have entered your area.  I am not aware that there is any tracking map for other types of hummingbirds.

I am fascinated and frustrated every year by watching the progress of the migration.  Invariably the little buggers are reported to our east and west, to our south and north before we have them.  I think it is because we are only a mile or so from the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment where the mountains rise up sharply above the land on the South Carolina border.

But come they will and we will delight in their presence.  Something about the tiny birds fills us with joy.


And the humming-bird that hung
Like a jewel up among
The tilted honeysuckle horns
They mesmerized and swung
In the palpitating air,
Drowsed with odors strange and rare.
And, with whispered laughter, slipped away
And left him hanging there.
– James Whitcomb Riley

Hummingbirds in our yard

Arguing over the feeder as they are wont to do