[cobirds] Female Magnificent Hummingbird, Boulder County, 11/6

COBirders

Our vagrant magnificent hummingbird was at the feeder this morning. Clearly she didn't learn what lies ahead from the 24 of cold frosty fog, and has not yet decided to leave.

Expert advise has been this: 

First, much as leaving a feeder out in late fall won't keep the masses from migrating, it can present problems with vagrants. Now she knows the feeder is here she is sticking around. If I removed the feeder now she'd most likely leave, but not likely to a safer location. (I will have to think twice about leaving feeders out so long in the future.)

Now we've tried the 3:1 solution to give her a boost, hoping that might be enough to raise her conditioning and get her on her way. She never looked under-weight to me (but maybe that was hard to tell, maybe she was puffed up for the cold.) That said, I do think she looks like a healthy well fed bird. At this time she has had 3:1 solution plus a plethora of insects for over a week, so she should be healthy. That hasn't helped her leave.

Next hope is that a colder deeper storm gives her the message, and finally kicks in her migration instincts. I felt she weathered the 24 hours of cold/freezing fog with little problem (as did many of the insects.) This has been such an unusual fall that maybe she isn't misguided, she's just a tough pioneer. We'll likely never know.

As such, the current plan is to keep supplementing her insect feeding with solution so she remains healthy/strong/safe, and hope that if/when she does make moves she is in the best of condition to do it.

regards

Adam
--

Adam R. B. Jack

Coal Creek Canyon
http://www.neukadye.com

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