Keep the liquid feeders flowing for hummers

Published 2:09 pm Friday, December 19, 2008

Gary Clark has spread the word through e-mail. Now he has a chance to spread the word to a wider audience.

The Marysville resident has a few Anna’s hummingbirds wintering at his house, hummers that didn’t migrate south.

“There have been times in the past that the hummingbird water froze and I never gave much thought to it because it would thaw the next day,” Clark said.

Thawing is not an option in this extended below-freezing stretch. “They can’t be drinking from frozen water.”

“A lot of people have backyard bird feeders, but not many are thinking about those little cute guys and that they could be starving. Due to their very high metabolism, they can die of starvation in as little as one day without food. If they don’t eat in a day, they could die.

“Not at my house.”

And they don’t have to die at your house, either.

During the winter hummingbirds need extra food, especially in this weather. Food is harder to find (both flowering plants and insects) and they expend more energy finding it.

Most of the times, hummingbird water’s proper ratio is 4:1, or 1 cup boiling water to one-fourth cup of white, granulated sugar (not honey or brown sugar). On the theory that one-third cup of sugar to a cup of boiling water will provide a larger energy rush and that the hummingbirds would then have to expend less energy searching for food, Clark got out the larger measuring cup.

“They get a strong jolt, go and rest and stay out of the snow. They don’t have that constant need to hit the bottle.”

The increased sugar does not seem to be harmful when limited to very cold weather, according to some birders.

Bring the feeder in at night so it will not freeze and set it outside with a fresh batch of sugar water in the morning.

Not too late: Score a two-for-one at the Burke Museum in Seattle, a pair of excellent photography exhibits that end on Dec. 31.

“Arctic Wings: Miracle of Migration” and “The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World” are good choices for a holiday outing with children to expose them to nature, migration and global warming issues.

Four award-winning photographers put together “Arctic Wings,” seeing the issue of migration through the birds that migrate from six continents and 50 U.S. states to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The texts complementing the photographs are chock full of information, including the continuing mysteries of migration, given its risks; the special glands in the heads of Sabine’s gulls that can filter out the salt from sea water to preserve the kidneys; the white-crowned sparrow, who sings through the “night” when the sun doesn’t set; and the snow geese that eat about 4,600 tons of cottongrass stems and horsetail shoots.

Time spent with “The Last Polar Bear” should convince even fence-sitters that a warming Earth can create problems.

Photographer Steven Kazlowski’s 40-photograph exhibit shows that global warming affects polar bears, walruses, seals and other species, including humans.

The exhibit includes Northwest filmmaker Arthur Smith’s short wildlife documentary, “Ice Bears of the Beaufort,” which focuses on their behavior. The Beaufort, Alaska bears are among the healthiest in the world.

Wildlife viewing: Bald eagles continue to arrive at wintering sites along the Skagit River. Each winter, hundreds of the white-headed raptors spend December and January along the river, where the carcasses of spawned salmon provide a feast for the birds.

After they have eaten as many carcasses as possible, the eagles head north to their summer homes in Alaska and British Columbia.

The best place to begin eagle-viewing activities is at the Skagit River Interpretative Center. The center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday through Monday through Feb. 18.

For more information on the interpretive center and on the Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Festival, which takes place Jan. 24-25, go to www.skagiteagle.org.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.