Hummingbird Migration ends

Well this years migration is over. With the exception of the occasional straggler, which is why I leave at least one feeder up until around December. Also as a reminder don't forget to change out the feeder with fresh nectar at least every other week if you are going to leave it up. This year turned out to be a more spread out migration. So instead of getting 30+ birds in a short period of time as I have in the past I only had 15 or so birds at any one time but the migration time lasted nearly a month long. Which is the longest period of time that many birds have stuck around during the migration to try and stake a claim to a feeder and try to defend it. Yes I said try to defend it. Earlier in the summer I always have a few birds that come by and stake a claim on one of my feeders and build a home close by in the neighboring woods. They will defend their feeder with a vengeance all summer, but during migration there are just too many birds and they are just not able to keep all of them from feeding from their feeder. So eventually they will relent slightly and allow some birds to drink from their feeder. It is really interesting to see them choose some birds as friends and allow them to drink but chase others away. I say friends because that's as close a word I can come up with to kind of describe what happens during migration. Really I think it is just an acceptance out of the realization that any one bird would just wear themselves out trying to keep all other birds off of their feeder.