Earlier this month in a column that I write for the Lynchburg News
and Advance I asked everyone to try to count the ruby-throated
hummingbirds seen at their feeders on August 5th. This is the fifth year
that the survey has been conducted in Central Virginia. For the first
time, people living outside of the Central Virginia area were invited to
submit their results and we had 42 such participants. The Central
Virginia reports are grouped by county and the other reports are grouped
by general geographic area.
Locality Participants Number of Birds Number
of Feeders
Amherst Co. 32 280 70
Appomattox Co. 11 161 38
Bedford Co. 31 185 61
Buckingham Co. 2 10 3
Campbell Co. 49 272 91
Charlotte Co. 2 7 3
Franklin Co. 2 9 4
Halifax Co. 1 3 1
Lunenburg Co. 1 10 2
Lynchburg 40 131 57
Nelson Co. 8 144 28
Pittsylvania Co. 3 20
3
(Subtotal) (182) (1232) (361)
Hampton Rds. /Norfolk 7 20 11
Richmond area 7 28 14
Roanoke/Blacksburg 3 16 11
Northern VA 8 34 14
Augusta/Rockingham 3 8 5
Albermarle Co. area 4 24 12
Front Royal area 2 7 3
Fredericksburg area 3 17 6
Middle/Northern Neck 2 8 3
Williamsburg area 3 55 7
TOTALS 224 1449 447
A close look at the numbers will reveal that, on average,
participants have two feeders and are host to about six birds. The high
count for birds was 75, reported by Al Bippus, who lives in Appomattox
County. He also had the high count for number of feeders at 16 and
commented that he was feeding about one and a half gallons of sugar-water
per day. I have visited his home at this season and it is almost
impossible to walk through the yard with all the birds buzzing past. It
is interesting to note that the people reporting from outside the Central
Virginia region generally have fewer birds per feeder than those who live
in this area.
Some of the participants noted that they had seen fewer birds this
year and the number of birds per feeder in the Central Virginia area is
slightly down from last year. The average number of birds per feeder in
Central Virginia over the past five years is given below.
Year Birds per feeder
2002 3.8
2003 3.2
2004 3.6
2005 3.5
2006 3.4
Our highest count of birds per feeder was made during the year of
the drought (2002) when hummingbirds were literally storming the
feeders since virtually all of the wildflowers had died back due to lack
of water. Of course, the very next year we enjoyed a monsoon season when
the annual rainfall was almost 50% higher than normal. Hummingbirds were
among the many species that did not do well because of the prolonged rain
and the numbers were down. Over the past three years, the numbers have
shown a slight decrease per feeder.
Thelma Dalmas
PS
If the columns "are dispersed" in transmission of this email, I can send
the information again to anyone who is interested as an attachment.
Thanks to all of you who sent in reports.
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