The Traveler has Returned

My son and I went to a park Saturday where I caught this guy on a perch I shot several hummers last year. The shot is a crop of a bad image so please excuse the quality. But it is the first hummer I've seen this year.

What I find amazing is that the park doesn't have any feeders out yet nor are there many flowers. So this male must have been one of hummers which visited this exact park last year. Mind boggling in a salmon-coming-home kind of way.

Makes me appreciate them even more. Tough little guys :)


BTW, my wife promptly put out the feeder Saturday and we had several visitors already today (Sunday).

If you look around Loupey theres probably a nest nearby and this guy is garding it . What i would give to find a nest . I have been looking for years :( but have never found one . But on the other hand its nice to C a Hummer photographed away from a feeder in more natural settings . So i say well captured indeed :) Good work :)

Hummingbirds have been back in NJ for a few weeks at most and I found 3 this past weekend(I did the world series of birding saturday... midnight to 8pm). I have seen them hawking insects before, though they are nectar eaters for the most part.

I highly doubt they are nesting this early(male birds arrive earlier). but I have found hummingbird nest before in an oak tree 30 feet up and a hemlock 40 feet up. The nest looks like a tiny knob on the branch and both have been made from moss and lychins(sp?)