Submitted by Scott Brinckerhoff
(December 31, 2022) — Visitors to the Haddam Wildlife Watchers Facebook site have been captivated by the story of the local hummingbird that never migrated. Sadly, the bird made what seems to be its final appearance on December 23, 2022 at the home of Dottie Long Rogers on Saybrook Road.
Prior to that, the tiny bird, dubbed Frosty by Ms. Rogers, had been showing up many times each day to sip sugar water from a feeder outside her window. She developed an intense attachment to Frosty and was rooting for her to make it though the winter and stick around in the spring and summer.
“It’s possible that she may have tried to migrate at this late date, but it’s also possible that she simply succumbed to the terribly cold weather at the end of December,” Ms. Rogers said.
Hummingbirds normally migrate south in early fall and return in spring.
Having a hummingbird in Haddam in winter is very, very rare, says Joe Morin, a past president of the Mattabeseck Audubon Society in Middletown.
“Occasionally, in a Christmas bird count, a hummingbird will appear,” Morin said, “but it’s usually a rufous variety that has likely been blown across the country in a storm.”
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are the only variety native to Connecticut. They spend warm months here and then migrate to Central America or some other temperate clime. When they return in the spring, it is to the same back yards they left months ago.
They may migrate 3,750 miles, including across the Gulf of Mexico. To have the energy to accomplish this remarkable feat, a hummer will double its three-gram weight to six grams, according to The Bird, a scientific study.
That may not sound like much, but it’s the equivalent of a 130-pound person adding 130 pounds of fat.
Ms. Rogers, a 45-year Haddam resident and enthusiastic birder, will have her eyes peeled this spring when the hummers and many other migrating birds return. Whether she’ll be able to identify Frosty from the rest of the pack is doubtful, but who knows?
Photos by Dottie Long Rogers
