For 13 years, fellow bander Ted Hicks and I have banded Ruby-thr Hummingbirds in the Adirondacks at Schroon Lake in Essex Co. What I report here is the results of a very disturbing 2024 hummer season at Schroon Lake as well as some results from hummer banding at my camp at Jenny Lake near Corinth in Saratoga Co. and some equally disturbing observations from Mooselookmeguntic Lake in Franklin Co., ME where I have previously banded. At Schroon Lake (SL), we typically conducted each year two banding sessions in late-May/early Jun, followed by 4-5 sessions once young appeared from late-Jul to mid-Aug. Typically Ad/M outnumbered Ad/F early in the season, that ratio reversing later in the season; while Juv/M usually outnumbered Juv/ F. Oldest retrap was a F over 8 yrs old. Greatest number captured in one day was 78 in 3 hrs in Jul 2012. For the 2024 season we experienced for the first time in 13 yrs a 2-hr trapping session on 7/27/24 where we did not catch a single hummer. Our total seasonal catch in 8 trapping sessions was 106 birds, second from the bottom in 13 yrs, including only 6 returns none over 2 yrs old. Had we not conducted the 8th trapping session, our 2024 season total would have been an all-time record low of 100 captures. These results were in sharp contrast to a record 184 birds captured last year which included 23 returns from previous yrs. The 2024 decline in numbers as well as age of return birds suggests some tragedy befell them. Hummer migration can be quite perilous: they go south during the hurricane season and north during the tornado season, these conditions possibly somehow playing a role in their survival. At Jenny Lake (JL) where I conduct weekend banding sessions May to Oct, the season started with the usual late-May rush, but then crashed. During 4 trapping sessions through the month of Jun I did not catch a hummer. Sugar-water consumption peaked in May at an anemic 86 g/day (years ago it had been as high as a little over 1000g/day), dipped to 23 g/day in Jun, then surged to 140 g/day in early Aug, exceeding the May peak. This is unusual because normally May peaks are always higher than those in Jul/Aug. Years ago at JL, one of my banded females tied the North American age record of 9yr-0mo originally set in OK. I banded her as an adult in May, then recaptured her at least once in each of the following 8 years, for a total of 25 times. That record has since been superceded by some 10-yr old birds. Concerned about these SL and JL abnormal results, I decided to contact two feeder operators in ME where I previously banded hummers for 19 yrs. The situation was the same: bad news. One feeder hostess with 9 feeders who was accustomed to using up to 1.5 gal/day of sugar-water reported that from mid-May when the hummers arrived until the time I contacted her in mid-Jun described her situation as "absolutely devastating." Feeders were being cleaned every few days to freshen the sugar-water, and only a half gallon of sugar-water was made over the entire month. The other operator who ran 5 feeders had the usual numbers of hummers upon arrival in May, but by mid-Jun was refilling some but not all of her feeders every 3 days, not every day as previously for Jun. The results from ME appear to corroborate the NY hummer decline making it look more regional than local. I'd be interested in any other quantitative data elsewhere in NY about the 2024 hummer season now drawing to a close upstate. Thanks, Bob yunickanneb...@aol.com --
(copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
