Wow, Larry! 12 feeders! Good for you. Most I’ve ever kept going is 3 &, in past few years, just one. Mainly, because as you noted…the cleaning. Not as easy as filling seeds in a platform feeder, lol! I clean in very hot water with a scrub brush & refill every 2 days & laziness on my part keeps me from maintaining more.

So, today, I’ve seen a couple of immature Calliope, both male & female, same with sev Rufous, a couple of immature female Black-chinned & a surprise adult male Black-chinned. Activity continues but the big flush of Rufous has moved on.

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

I watched a subadult broad-tailed last night in my yard here in the north end (Boise). What a beauty, especially his spotted cheeks and the how he perched for long periods of time. He traded off with a female black-chinned at one of my feeders all evening.

> On Aug 18, 2019, at 3:06 PM, LARRY ARNOLD larnold47@cableone.net [ible] wrote:
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> I’ve been enjoying all the hum-chatter, both by the hums and by the good peoples reporting them… =)
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> Guessing we’ve just passed our peak of fall migration here in west Boise, elev 2600 ft, and this might have been our highest number of hums since moving here 7 yrs ago. Estimating we had 25+ birds, mostly black-chins (always), precious few rufous, an occasional calliope, but no broad-tailed yet. Easily could have been 2x or 3x this number at our 12 feeders, which cannot all be watched at the same time.
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> I consider feeding hummers to be a chess match, as I often move feeders around to different locations in hopes that they don’t become dominated by individual birds. I know that I could make “feeder maintenance” a lot easier by limiting the number of feeders we use, but we enjoy all the hum-fussing, hum-cussing, aerial jousting and DRAMA. Brian’s word “bittersweet” comes to mind – we hate to see them depart for the year, but I’m ready to take a break from washing feeders. 😉
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> Larry
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I’ve been enjoying all the hum-chatter, both by the hums and by the good peoples reporting them… =)

Guessing we’ve just passed our peak of fall migration here in west Boise, elev 2600 ft, and this might have been our highest number of hums since moving here 7 yrs ago. Estimating we had 25+ birds, mostly black-chins (always), precious few rufous, an occasional calliope, but no broad-tailed yet. Easily could have been 2x or 3x this number at our 12 feeders, which cannot all be watched at the same time.

I consider feeding hummers to be a chess match, as I often move feeders around to different locations in hopes that they don’t become dominated by individual birds. I know that I could make “feeder maintenance” a lot easier by limiting the number of feeders we use, but we enjoy all the hum-fussing, hum-cussing, aerial jousting and DRAMA. Brian’s word “bittersweet” comes to mind – we hate to see them depart for the year, but I’m ready to take a break from washing feeders. 😉

Larry

Here is my Sunday morning walk report from Packsaddle Estates in the foothills of the Big Hole Mountains in the NW area of Teton Valley. Observed 31 species which is higher than counts earlier in the month.

Before the wind picked up around 9am, saw and heard many birds: Large numbers of fledgling robins and Western Tanagers feeding in the service berry bushes. And for the first time ever, I saw one Eastern Kingbird near Packsaddle Creek perched briefly on an aspen.

Eurasian Collared-Dove 3
Mourning Dove 8
Broad-tailed Hummingbird 1
Rufous Hummingbird 4
Calliope Hummingbird 1
Sandhill Crane 2 heard calling below
Turkey Vulture 1
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1 calling
Red-naped Sapsucker 1
Western Wood-Pewee 6 2 singing, saw fledglings chasing adult
Eastern Kingbird 1 first sighting of this species at this location!
Warbling Vireo 4 food begging from adult, one with serviceberry fruit
Mountain Chickadee 1 at Youngblood’s feeder
Tree Swallow 12
Violet-green Swallow 14
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Wren 2
Gray Catbird 1
Swainson’s Thrush 1
American Robin 27 robins feeding in serviceberry bushes all along route, speckling fading on immatures but still visible
Cedar Waxwing 3
Evening Grosbeak 3
House Finch 2
Cassin’s Finch 1 at Youngblood’s feeder, weak face pattern, light streaking below
Pine Siskin 3
American Goldfinch 2 heard calling as they flew overhead
Chipping Sparrow 4
Green-tailed Towhee 4
Yellow Warbler 7 heard two males giving partial songs
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4 immatures chasing each other, no singing heard
Western Tanager 14 only a few obvious male adults, many juveniles and females, did not get exact count by age class

View this checklist online at https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Febird.org%2Fview%2Fchecklist%2FS59079447&data=02%7C01%7C%7C8bbf2df6ddd34e615d5608d723fea6d0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637017448932985544&sdata=ialsrdqPjm36V7QivHO426%2B4Ep27qJDr5%2FMiFjzH7%2Bg%3D&reserved=0