Feeding birds

In the mountains, our thistle and sunflower seed feeders received non-stop activity in early evening. Goldfinches ate niger seeds. Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, Northern Cardinals and White-Breasted Nuthatches took turns at the other feeder, after we refilled the box with black oil sunflower seeds.

We still have hummingbirds visiting the jewelweed patches, although having feeders up for them in a weekend place isn't really practical (or healthy for hummingbirds).

At home in the Piedmont of SC, we're still seeing ruby-throated hummingbirds at our flowers and feeders, but they've started to head south. We'll probably see the last visitor in mid-October, based on previous years.

Check out Operation RubyThroat to post your observations about what you see in the Eastern U.S. and Canada (where we see Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds from late spring to early fall). Bill Hilton, at Hilton Pond Natural History Center, an expert natural history investigator on hummingbird behavior, is partnering with Earth Trek in this Citizen Science project.