Date: 09/09/2022

Number: 12

Not a great photo, just a quick snapshot with my phone. I hope to spend more time next year taking photos of these amazing birds with my camera, not my phone. This is one of our young juvenile males. He was from one of the first nests of this season and has spent the last 6+ weeks successfully claiming and defending his territory, our patio, which is full of lots of container flowers and is surrounded by a rather large patio garden full of hummingbird favorites and 3 hummingbird feeders. The photo shows his favorite perch, which is a straggler branch at the top of a mock orange, about 8-10 feet high. Whenever he would want a higher viewpoint, he would fly up to an oak branch right above, about 20 feet high. All summer long, all day long, he would chase numerous hummingbirds off the patio as they would attempt to come in and feed on the flowers or patio feeders. We could see him on his perch directly from our kitchen window. He became very special to us and grew quite accustomed to remaining on his perch while we were out on the patio with him or he would feed from the flowers and squeak at us. My daughter likes us to name all of our hummingbirds as we get to know their individual behaviors and such. This spunky, resilient guy was most aptly named Maverick.

It appears that he departed on his first long migration journey yesterday morning, the 8th. His presence was already greatly missed today and we will look forward to him returning next year. God speed, little guy.

Kernersville, NC

Latitude: 36.1 Longitude: -80.1

Observed by: Sophie
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