I dearly love hummingbirds and always have feeders out for them. I am rewarded by their friendship - they are fearless. I was worried about the cold snap and saw this in the Bellingham Herald:
Freezing weather can keep hummingbirds from feeding. Here’s how to help
Elaina Bailey of Bellingham loves hummingbirds and worried about feeding them as temperatures dropped below freezing this week.
A bird guidebook provided the solution — a string of incandescent lights wrapped around her feeder prevents the nectar from freezing.
“It works perfect down to about 20 degrees,” Bailey said in an interview Wednesday. “Then I break out a heat lamp. I end up with clouds of hungry hummers that will land on me while I’m putting out feeders.”
Whatcom Humane Society’s wildlife rehabilitation center has seen an increase in arrivals of hummingbirds this month and has fielded calls from concerned citizens during the cold snap.
It will be a challenge to find incandescent Christmas lights now but I will look around. Most are LED and these are too efficient to generate the needed heat.
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