If any of you are familiar with Western Washington/Portland, OR area – you know we rarely get snow or even really cold temperatures. It usually stays in the mid range, and we get wind and rain. It’s a rare occasion when we get below freezing temperatures and even rarer that we get snow that adds up (we get dusting’s here and there). Back in December we got super cold temperatures, below freezing (in the teens) for lows & high’s still not getting above freezing for like a week straight.
This week started out with a wicked wind which made the temperature feel even colder then it was. We were again lows in the teens, and the wind made it even colder once again. Then yesterday it started snowing and was still windy, so it looked blizzard like outside. It just kept snowing too and adding up big time. There were wrecks everywhere, and everything was closing down and already they were closing things for today (Friday). I noticed yesterday that my hummingbird feeder outside was frozen, I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I should have brought it in when I first noticed it, but I didn’t.
Here I am sitting here in my corner of the couch this morning and notice that my poor little hummingbird was trying to drink from the frozen feeder. My heart broke, and I was thinking how can I get in it and unfreeze it and make new stuff? I post on facebook about it asking for advice. I shortly after go out and bring it in and put it on our mantle at the far end to warm up. I sit back down in my corner and shortly after I see my little guy out there trying to find the feeder. He hangs around for probably 2 to 4 minutes just looking for it. That broke my heart even more.
I then took action and found a winter recipe for them & put the feeder into warm water in the sink. I made up the winter mix I found online, and it just couldn’t cool down quick enough for me to get it back out there. It’s now back up, and I hope my little guy finds out I fed him. Poor thing.
In case anyone is interested – this is the recipe I found from here.
Fall and Winter Recipe:
- Mix these two ingredients in a medium size pot
- Bring these to a boil on high heat, takes about 3 minutes
- Boil for about 10 seconds
- Remove from heat at this point
- Cover, but let steam escape and let the mixture cool completely
