Nature Done Wright

  One of the great simple pleasures in the next several months is watching some of the world’s most amazing athletes, ruby-throated hummingbirds, as they zip from flowers to feeders.

   And now you can chart their progress north, thanks to a nifty Web site: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html

  As you can see from the map, it’s probably not a bad idea to put out your hummingbird feeders now.

    The good news about feeding hummingbirds is that it is cheap compared to feeding most birds.

    And if you put the feeder by a window or on a deck, you can see some pretty amazing shows by these little guys — who are arguably the most acrobatic fliers around.

   A basic feeder can be purchased at a birding-supply store for under $15. And the sugar water you can make yourself from four parts water and one part sugar.

   If your feeder is part red — and most are these days — don’t waste your time and money coloring the water with red dye.

   The bad news is that because the sugar water tends to go bad after roughly three days, so you’ll need to refill often. But once you get hummingbirds coming to your feeders, you’ll find it worth the effort.

   The West Coast, Central America and South America have many kinds of hummingbirds. The East Coast has mostly one — the ruby-throat.  But don’t feel too bad. Last I checked, the other continents had none.

   By the way, the male ruby-throats have ruby throats, and the females have white throats.

   A good basic  site for hummingbird information is: http://www.rubythroat.org/