They buzz by your head in impatience when the feeder needs to be restocked. Leave a door ajar, a screen on the window open, or the garage door up and their curiosity will most often lead them in to explore. They will chase their own kin zealously for trying to share a feeder with multiple feeding holes and perches.

Hummingbirds. Our most curious and beloved migrant. A bird which most feeder watchers know very little about.

Did you ever wonder how a bird weighing less than a nickel manages to fly thousands of miles in migration each year? Do you even know where they go to spend the winter?

What plants are best to attract them to your yard? Can you make your own feeding solution instead of buying pre-packaged solution? What are they doing when they fly in that pendulum pattern? Are the birds I see each summer the same ones I saw the year before? Why do I seem to have so many females at this time of year (actually you don’t)?

These and other questions can be answered Aug. 13-15 at the first annual New River Hummingbird Festival — an event which will be offered free to the public at ACE Adventure Center. Jointly hosted by ACE and the New River Birding and Nature Center, the festival is keynoted by Bill Hilton Jr., consulting director of the center. A licensed hummingbird bander, Hilton is the only scientist currently studying hummingbirds on both their nesting grounds and wintering grounds.

The event will kick off Friday, Aug. 13 at 9 a.m. with the only activity which requires registration and a fee. This teaching workshop is geared toward educators and those who have a keen interest in citizen science. It will last until 3:30 p.m., includes lunch and costs $20. Topics to be covered include hummingbird natural history from feeding to nesting to migration; observing and photographing hummingbird behavior; designing a hummingbird habitat; attracting and caring for hummingbirds in your own backyard, schoolyard or nature center; reporting hummingbird observations via EarthTrek and The GLOBE Program; using hummingbirds as a teaching tool; banding hummingbirds and more.

On Friday evening at 7 p.m., the free portion of the festival will kick off with a 7-9 p.m. presentation “Ruby-throated Hummingbirds: From Your Yard to Costa Rica….and Back!”

More free events are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14 and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 15, including banding demonstrations (where you may actually have the chance to hold a hummingbird in your hand); vendors featuring bird crafts and native plants important to the hummingbird diet; exhibits and the chance to have any and all of your questions answered by Hilton.

For more information or to sign up for the workshop, call Dave Pollard at 304-574-4258 or e-mail Rachel Davis at Rachel@wolfcreekparkwv.com.