2017 Hummingbird Festival

Thank goodness, Andy, Sela and Eli are here.  I have been wanting to attend the annual Hummingbird Festival in Donnellson Illinois for the last three years.  Having Sela and Eli as guests provided enough impetus to finally get me there.

It was an unbelievably fine June day when we arrived at Stoecklin Orchards to hear a presentation by Vern Klein, Master Bird Bander and a leader of the Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders.  Unfortunately I missed most of his speech so I did a little research.

1.  It can take at least a year for someone to learn how to properly band a hummingbird without injuring it.

2.  Banding birds allows researchers to glean background on where the birds travel, how long they live and whether they return to the same sites year after year.  

3.  Birds banded in Illinois have been found in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas.

4.  Hummingbird habitats are being destroyed and as attendees could attest to from personal experience, the numbers of hummingbirds are decreasing.

Sela was interested in 'adopting' a hummingbird so we went to sign up.  We filled out an adoption form and were given the number 54.  About an hour and a half later, Sela was the fifty fourth person to release a banded hummingbird back into the wild.  If her bird is recaptured, a card will be sent to her.

Along the side of the building mesh nets are placed over hummingbird feeders.
According to the young lady standing next to me, the birds fly in but they can not get out.
One of the bird banders will reach in and capture the birds and take them to be banded.  

Number 54 (Sela) getting a chance to release her 'adopted' bird.  

Sela's hummingbird being placed in her hand.  

According to the video tape that Andy took,
Sela's bird rested in her hand 3 seconds before....  

it took off.