He is a little male male hummer no bigger than your thumb ! We thought he came on a south west wind just to visit Dunbar or just to maybe have a new” Great White North vacation , away from the desert heat and cactus that he loved so much down south . He arrived in June 2010, probably from Southern California and got stuck in our Greenhouse, we released him in one hand and had a bird book in the other ! Yes a positive I.D. he was a Costa ! Would he go back home to Southern Cal.or Oh My Gosh try to stay here for the 2010, 2011 winter seasons , and find a place some where in Dunbar ? Fall came and the brave little bird fed on the last wild flower nectar in our yard and other gardens near Camosun Street . We set up two different humming bird feeders to see which one he preferred and I panicked and made a hang down a electric heat lamp , ready just in case of a cold spell .

 

He came most mornings in the cold weather, as soon as it broke light and we had to have the feeder out, before our dog went out. As soon as the day time weather warmed enough for insects, including spiders, to be active, he was busy hunting for them ! Our grand-son asked ” where does he sleep at night grandpa? well thank goodness for old Dunbar houses that leak heat from under the eaves , outside of one of those secret houses, yes under the eaves, that where he finds the best place to sleep the night away ! By about 6.00 P. M. the little bird, snuggled under the eves, slips into a Torpor , “a strange death like sleep that lasts all night long” until he is awakened by the first rays of morning light ! All his energy has now slipped away, gone by his deep sleep and now he has to rush to the nearest feeder, that hopefully is not frozen, to renew his energy, with long drinks of early morning sugar water ! He must also find protein and that is the spiders that are still found alive under the eves of numerous old heat leaking houses !

 

 

He stayed all winter and then disappeared in the spring and summer of 2011 , well we all thought he has just got fed up with a Vancouver Winter and like the old Maizy, Lazy Bird in the children’s story book , he must have just headed back down south to his desert home . His vacation in the great North was probably over !

 

Not so , this year in the fall , sightings of him started to come in again from Dunbar , near Camosun Street , he was feeding from feeders again near our house ! Wow he is still here, amazing news to us all , but will he remember our winter back yard feeder from one year ago , well two cold weeks ago on a very frosty morning,, we grabbed for our binoculars, yes , yes our Greenhouse Costa had returned !

 

Its 6.30 am in the morning , have you put out the humming bird feeder yet ? ? ? ?

 

Terry