The Backroad Report Rural life · gardens · backyard wildlife
The Feeder Most People Take Down Too Soon: Why a 69-Year-Old Glassblower North of Seattle Says October Is When It Matters Most
It's October, and across America most hummingbird feeders are already back in the garage. Many came down right after Labor Day. Most people have heard that a feeder left out will keep the birds from flying south. The Smithsonian's National Zoo calls that idea "a myth." Roy Henley, 69, has blown glass for thirty-two years in an old dairy barn outside Stanwood, Washington, and the feeders he makes there stay up in his yard all year. What he has learned may change what you do with yours this month.
Roy Henley, 69, with two feeders from his September firing. Every one is blown in the old barn behind his house.
The October Morning Marge Called Him to the Window
Roy came to glass late. He spent nearly twenty years fixing boat engines at a marina in Everett before his wife, Marge, signed him up for a night class in glassblowing "so you'll quit taking apart the toaster." He was thirty-seven. Two years later, on a gray morning in October 1996, she called him to the kitchen window.
"She says, Roy, there's a hummingbird out there," he remembers. "I told her she was seeing things. Everybody knew hummingbirds were gone by September."
It was a male Anna's hummingbird, his throat flashing magenta in the first light, working the little red plastic feeder they had simply never gotten around to taking down. The sugar water had gone cloudy and the plastic had faded to pink. Marge scrubbed it in the sink, filled it fresh, and the bird was back on it before she had the door shut.
That night she asked him for something better. "Glass, so it would scrub clean. And pretty," Roy says. "She said, if I'm going out there every morning, I want it to be worth looking at." He sketched it on the back of a seed catalog and blew the first two that week, one for the kitchen window and one for the porch. Marge kept them filled for twenty-five years. Today Roy does.
At the bench in his barn studio. The glove and the wet cherry-wood block do all the shaping.
How Roy Makes Each One
Roy's studio sits a few miles from the tree farm where, in June 1971, Dale Chihuly and the Hauberg family started the Pilchuck Glass School, the place that turned the Pacific Northwest into one of the world's great centers of studio glass. Roy's barn is a lot smaller. It holds one furnace, one bench and a lifetime of habits.
Each reservoir starts as a glowing gather of molten glass on a steel blowpipe and is shaped freehand, not pressed in a mold. No two come out alike.
Crushed colored glass is rolled into the hot gather, so the color is part of the glass itself and stays rich and bright for years.
Four red flowers sit around the base with perch bars between them, so a bird can settle in and drink comfortably.
The base comes apart from the glass. Hot water and a bottle brush, and it's ready to refill in minutes.
A Maple Red reservoir taking shape, cupped in a pad of soaking-wet newspaper.
The Hummingbird That Stays
Marge's hummingbird wasn't lost. Before the 1930s, the Anna's hummingbird nested no farther north than San Francisco Bay. It wasn't reported north of the Oregon border until 1944, and it reached Seattle in 1964. Today it lives year-round in the Puget Sound region, the only hummingbird in Washington that does.
What brought it north was people. Washington's NatureMapping program names the two main reasons: the growing popularity of hummingbird feeders, and city gardens with something in bloom almost all year. Feeders, as BirdWatching magazine puts it, "provide a super-rich food source."
Anna's hummingbirds at three of Roy's feeders on a late-September afternoon. Out here, they stay all year.
Hummingbirds migrate on their own schedule. The Smithsonian's National Zoo says plainly: "It's a myth that leaving hummingbird feeders up too late in the fall will prevent the birds from migrating." Late travelers are glad of the fuel.
One part plain white sugar to four parts water. No red dye, which the Smithsonian says "isn't necessary" and "could be harmful," and never honey. The red flowers on the feeder do the attracting.
In cooler October weather, the Smithsonian recommends cleaning and refilling at least once a week, and twice a week when it's hot.
One bossy hummingbird can guard a single feeder all day. With two in different corners of the yard, more birds get their turn. "That's the trick Marge figured out," Roy says.
The Boy on the Back Step
Roy's love of hummingbirds goes back much further than Marge's kitchen window. He grew up in north Everett, where his grandmother Nell kept a hedge of red fuchsias along the back fence. Every summer the rufous hummingbirds came through it "like somebody was throwing copper pennies." At eight, Roy spent whole afternoons on the back step with a school tablet on his knees, drawing them.
Nell made her own feeder: a little glass candy dish on three wires, with a paper flower glued to the rim. On one page from the summer of 1965, young Roy drew a round glass with four flowers around the bottom. Underneath, in careful capitals: A FEEDER THAT LOOKS LIKE A FLOWER.
Roy, 8, with his grandmother Nell in Everett, summer 1965. Her homemade feeder, a glass dish on three wires, hangs on the fence.
Wherever You Live, Fall Is a Great Time to Hang One
Those copper-colored rufous hummingbirds from Nell's fuchsias are remarkable travelers. They nest farther north than any other hummingbird, all the way up into Alaska, and some of them now head east each fall instead of straight south. Birds & Blooms says rufous hummingbirds "come east every year and you are more likely to see one at your feeders in October and November."
That's one more reason not to rush. As the same magazine puts it, "Late migrating fall hummingbirds can use the extra energy from a feeder as they move south," and "leaving your hummingbird feeders up will not cause the birds not to migrate."
A male Anna's at a Blue Swirl feeder. When the flowers fade, the color in the glass is what catches his eye.
| Where you live | Who may visit | Best plan |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific Coast | Anna's hummingbirds, all year | Keep it up all year |
| Gulf Coast and the South | Late ruby-throats, then rufous visitors | Leave it up through November |
| Arizona and the Southwest | Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds | Keep it up all year |
| Midwest and Northeast | Late travelers and the odd western visitor | Leave it up two weeks past your last sighting |
212 left from Roy's September firing, ready to ship in 2–4 business days.
See What's Left → Hand-blown in Stanwood, Washington · Ships in 2–4 business daysWhy Glass Makes Such a Difference
A hand-blown glass feeder is one you'll be proud to hang. The color is part of the glass, so it stays rich and bright season after season. The hard, smooth glass rinses truly clean in a minute and doesn't scratch the way soft plastic does. And it's simply beautiful: on a gray October morning, it's the brightest thing in the yard.
It's also why there's never any need for red dye. Birds & Blooms notes that "red colored flowers and feeders may help catch their attention," so Roy lets the four red flowers on the base do the work and fills the glass with plain sugar water.
Left: a typical plastic feeder after one season. Right: Roy's hand-blown glass, same yard, same week.
| Typical plastic | Roy's hand-blown glass | |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Fades in the sun | Color inside the glass stays bright |
| Surface | Soft, scratches over time | Hard, smooth glass |
| Cleaning | Hard to get truly clean | Hot water and a brush |
| In your yard | Easy to overlook | A piece of glass art at the window |
"Hummingbirds have strong spatial memory, and they may return to the same spots where they've found food in the past, even after migrating thousands of miles."
What Customers Say
"Ordered two and hung them on opposite sides of the house, like Roy says. Our bossy male Anna's can't guard both, so now we have three regulars instead of one. My husband counts them with his morning coffee."
Janice P. · Tacoma, WA
"I always brought mine in after Labor Day. Last year I left Roy's up, and the week before Thanksgiving a little orange hummingbird showed up. A local bird bander confirmed it was a rufous. I'm leaving it up again this year."
Denise A. · Baton Rouge, LA
"Bought one for my mother. She hung it outside the window where my dad used to drink his coffee. She says it's the first thing she looks at every morning."
Ruth K. · Asheville, NC
Questions Readers Ask
Will leaving a feeder up keep hummingbirds from migrating?
No. Hummingbirds leave on their own schedule. A feeder simply gives late travelers a welcome place to refuel, and a bird that fills up in your yard this October may remember the spot next year.
Is October too late to hang one?
Not at all. Late travelers pass through all month, rufous hummingbirds often turn up in the East and South in October and November, and on the Pacific Coast, Anna's hummingbirds stay all year.
How do I keep it clean?
Take the base off, rinse with hot water and use a bottle brush. In cooler October weather, once a week is enough; when it's hot, twice a week.
Should I get one or two?
One is lovely anywhere. Many customers order two and hang them out of sight of each other, so one bossy bird can't keep all the others away.
Why There Are Only 212
Roy fires his furnace just twice a year, in September and in February, and finishes about fourteen feeders on a good day. When we visited at the end of September, 212 feeders from this year's September firing were left on the packing shelves in Everett, where his granddaughter Wren, 27, runs Cedar and Tin. Every one ships within a few days. Once they're gone, there won't be more until the February firing.
Spring Full refund
Hang it this October. If it hasn't earned its spot by the time the rufous hummingbirds return in spring, send it back for a full refund. And if one ever arrives damaged, Wren will send a new one right away.
Disclaimer: This article is a sponsored post and contains advertising. The products featured have been carefully selected. Prices may vary.
The operator of this website has a financial connection to the products advertised. Product offered by Cedar and Tin. Money-back guarantee applies. Shipping and handling may apply. Results and bird activity vary by region and season. © 2026 The Backroad Report. All rights reserved.
The Backroad Report
Rural life · gardens · backyard wildlife