The past week or so has seen the annual online panic about the perceived lateness or scarcity of ruby-throated hummingbirds on their North American breeding grounds. If your favorite trochilid hasn’t “returned” to your feeders yet, you might take the advice of Althea R. Sherman, who in 1913 reported on
her experiment in feeding humming birds in an effort to get them to nest near her house. The birds were first tempted with a flower of oil cloth, gaily painted and containing a little vial of sweetened water. The same birds [!] have been coming back [!] year after year [!] since the beginning of the experiment…. The sugar syrup is now placed without concealment in bottles and the birds come for it with delight.
I’m busy manufacturing oilcloth flowers, which I expect to sell for, oh, say, $150 each.
