Still feeding her ravenous chicks; Hummingbirds are on their way to Long Island!

The chicks completely fill the nest now and their short black beaks stick out over the rim. Mme W spends almost all her time away from the nest hunting insects, and only returns, briefly, every quarter hour to feed her ravenous offspring. In a few days they might fledge

it's still rather early to put up feeders on Long Island . The best way to time it is to follow Lanny Chamber's migration map at http://hummingbirds.net/map.html

The front of the migrating wave has already reached North Carolina, and I expect it will reach Long Island around mid-april. Bear in mind that these are the initial arrivals - the main wave is several days later. The migration has been getting steadily earlier over the last 20 years as global warming starts to bite.