Quite a few people have remarked that we have not had many butterflies, honey bees or hummingbirds this summer. The day The Squire and I cleaned the walk, a hummingbird – the first we’ve seen this season – flew up almost in my face, and then busied itself among the Cleome and Jewel Weed blossoms. I immediately came inside and made up a small batch of nectar, and had our feeder out that evening. When I hung the feeder in the dusk, I saw quite a few honey bees flitting around the flowers. We have also seen a lot more butterflies in the last week of so, including a couple of Monarchs. The weather has cooled down considerably, which might make a difference.
I’ve been only been using a half-cup of nectar at a time, as it will go bad fairly quickly when it is as hot as it’s been – upper 80s and low 90s – so it doesn’t get wasted. Tuesday evening I misjudged the distance to the hook and dropped the feeder on the ground and the plastic shattered. Aaargh! I had to search on-line for a new feeder, as this is not prime time for them. Got a very nice one at Petco – the top has an ant moat, which is a Good Thing, but I did find some huge ants on the feeder when I brought it in last night; when the breeze moves it too close to the squirrel baffle, they are able to get from there to the base of the HBF. Apparently, the regular ants are too small to swing between the baffle and the bottom of the HBF. This necessitated shuffling everything around, as we have a regular feeder, another for the finches, plus a “cage” which holds two suet blocks, all of which hang from various shepherd’s hooks. We also have a hopper-type feeder which is on a pole, but that wasn’t involved in the Great Feeder Migration.
So – at the moment, it looks as if we have two hummingbirds, tanking up for the trip south. The feeder is right outside the den window, so I can watch them while I’m on the computer. We’ll have to put the HBF out early this coming spring, and see if we can keep them around.
thisendoftheswamp 
So nice of you to think of the humming birds and mixing up a batch of nectar for them. I live in a concrete jungle and can only admire whatever is in the common estate’s garden. I once tried to tell the Condo Security Chap not to trap the doves and cage them. He said he did it for fun. I am glad he lost interest in it now and has stopped doing it. I saw how the dove tried to fly out and kept hitting itself on the sides of the cage, resulting in hurting itself. It is just not right to trap a free flying or roaming bird or animal.