While living in Upland, CA, I was delighted to find that Hummingbirds were present all year round. My best friend Lindsey gifted me a hummingbird feeder for my birthday in 2018, though she probably did not know it, it would be one of my favorite gifts ever and it would provide me years of joy and happy distraction.
At first I bought hummingbird nectar from the store. But because the hummingbirds drank it so quickly, my two hummingbird feeders would be bone dry in less than 6 hours, I realized that buying 12 ounces or so at a time at $5 a shot would get really expensive really quickly. So, I began to make my own hummingbird nectar from sugar and water. This began a long 2.5 year care project for the needy hummingbirds.
Though it is a suburbanized desert, the Inland Empire, as it is known in California, is home to a wide variety of hummingbirds including Anna's and Rufous. They came in numbers to all the feeders in our apartment complex and to my balcony in particular. There were several occasions where some 20 hummingbirds were swarming around my feeders at one time. The hummingbirds would whir in and around the balcony, jockeying for positions on my feeders, I had a total of 8 "flowers" through which they could get at the nectar. There were so many in fact and their activity was so constant, that Cory remarked on more than one occasion that the hummingbirds sounded as if they were in a miniature version of Star Wars. The humming of their flight, the light sabers and their quiet yet high pitched chirps sounded as if they were blasters being fired by the Storm Troopers.
The hummingbirds were fun to watch and I appreciated the numerous photo opportunities they presented over the years. Of the few things I miss about Southern California, hummingbirds are certainly one of them.
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