Everything is Humming at Lake Eufaula Campground

This is a picture of a Rufous Humming Bird- one of several species of humming birds that can be found in our local area this winter. We learned all about humming birds at a workshop held at Landmark Park in Dothan on January 30th. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Dothan and we were back at the campground in plenty of time to enjoy the 70 degree weather and sunshine of Saturday afternoon.

The humming bird trip was our first of at least 12 monthly activities to be hosted by the campground this year. Some activities will be directly on campground property while others, like the humming bird workshop, will be held off site.  The office will have information about each event and at least one of the campground team will attend. You can earn points toward a free night of camping by joining us at our posted monthly events.

It's one thing to read about humming birds but quite another to learn from an expert. The speaker, Mr. Fred Bassett, has banded over 30,000 hummingbirds across the United States. The most common type of humming bird in our area is the red throated humming bird. Have your humming bird feeder up by the fourth of July to see more of these  birds. Their peak migration in this area is in September and most will have headed south by October 15 for winter in Central America. A humming bird's flight range  as shown by banding can be over 3000 miles. There has been a document flight of a rufous humming bird banded in Florida and later sighted in Alaska. Humming birds eat insects and get their energy from flowers or the sugar water in local feeders. The humming bird nest is the size of a quarter. In this part of the country a female can lay two eggs to three times a season. The bird are full grown when they leave the nest. A female can return to the same nest year after year.

As a new birder I am excited to host more birding events. In April we plan to hold our first Birds on the Water event with Kayak and Pontoon Boat trips planned. The Campground store is adding to it selection of bird watching items and we are keeping a list of local sightings here in the store.  The National Backyard Bird Count is our February activity. We will count backyard birds at the feeders and water birds in the wild at the retreat center starting February 12. The focus of hosted campground activities in March will be on art and historic homes in Eufaula. 

Rick and I really enjoy seeing the sites in our RV. We hope our monthly events will inspire other RV's to come explore Eufaula and the surrounding region in 2016.