Buford Couple 'Warms' Hummingbird During Cold Snap

[Donna]

Buford Couple 'Warms' Hummingbird During Cold Snap

BUFORD, Ga. -- All summer at our Buford home, we have had two hummingbird feeders and two families of hummingbirds. Unfortunately, one female did not leave and fly south once winter arrived.

We contacted the Georgia Department of Wildlife and they gave us essentially two choices: Remove the window feeder, which could force her to fly south or keep feeding her. We took the later option.

Originally, when it started getting below freezing, we brought the feeder in at night and put it back out at 4:30 am. The solution was changed from a 4 to 1 ratio to 3 to 1 to lower the freezing point.

Since last Sunday, when the temperature was below freezing, my husband built a heater stand to keep the solution warm.

She feeds approximately every half hour to hour and is always here at first light and her last feeding is around 5:45 p.m. when the sky is clear and 5:30 p.m. when cloudy.

She has survived the extreme cold of this week and Thursday's snow. The pictures were taken around 4:30 p.m. Friday, and as you can see, she is still healthy and looks in good shape.

Saturday morning, she was at the feeder at 7:20 a.m. She is staying at the feeder -- warming as much as feeding -- enjoying the heat lamp.

[valhalla]

I can easily see Rich setting up the heaters!   

[jeanne]

So nice to see the goodness of people