My hummers have been scarce this year too. I just figured they went farther north where it's cooler.
Last month we spent a few days at a lake and rented a cabin that had a nice breezy 2nd floor deck, so we sat out there in rocking chairs, enjoying the scenery. We noticed a hummingbird flitting around quite a bit and I finally saw her go to a nest where there were 2 babies. The nest was really tiny and camouflaged quite well. People, I'm 56 years old and that was the first time in my life I ever saw a hummingbird nest (except for in a book or on TV). We watched those babies be fed about every 10 minutes. They were so big they filled the nest and jostled each other for space. That poor mama bird made many, many trips to get food for them. We think she flew across the lake to where there were several houses on a bluff. Someone there must have had feeders. Watching them was really the highlight of my trip.