First Report from the sanctuary

I arrived back at the sanctuary late thursday afternoon. Thanks to the great help of a friend, there were already a lot of feeders up, and within an hour I saw a hummer briefly visiting a feeder along the woodland trail. Some of the minifeeders near the cottages had to be replenished, which was of course my first priority. The following day these feeders were also being (very briefly) visited, and I could see that, as expected, the resident hummer is a male. At one point I'm pretty sure he chased off another hummer, but it happened very quickly. The visits are too brief to film (shorter than the start-up time on my camera!), so here is a clip of some of the flowers already in bloom, irises and columbines (the latter being a good hummer plant). The coral honeysuckle is just beginning to bloom too - an even better nectar source.

The very brief visits to feeders are very characteristic of this time of year. The male, who I assume is Fred from previous years, is just checking that the feeder is good, and therefore needs guarding. Since his territory is rather large (typically an acre) he spends most of his time patrolling it, perching near each feeder and watching. As I get to know his favorite perching spots, I should be able to get good video.
UPDATE - while breakfasting this saturday morning on the back deck, I saw a female go to feeder 2, only to be immediately driven off by Fred. A few seconds later, Fred returned to the scene, perching near feeder 1 (the one at the northwest corner of the back deck) and briefly turning towards me flashing brilliant red. Of course I did not have the camera with me - I must learn that whenever I'm sitting watching, the camera should be ready.