purslane, all the books say they do remember and come back. Apparently those tiny brains have very detailed maps of food sources, and they would need it to live thru the long migrations. I also have seen it myself when I didn't hang my feeders up one year-- several birds coming back to the very spot in the middle of my deck and hovering around there.

Here in zone 6, St Louis, all the wonderful buzzing and chasing is gone and I am not seeing them every day. Also the feeders don't go down much. But some are out there, I have seen two in the last week, and 2nd one two days ago.

I figure these are the second brood stragglers, too little and young to compete well with the big guys for food, so stayed skinny and got held back from migrating earlier. I have seen some every year into mid-late October with nights into the low 30's. I keep a rich mixture out this time of year to help them get fat enough to leave. The books say they have to fatten up before migrating in case they don't find food forward. They get so fat that if they were fatter they couldn't fly!

You can see the fat white bellies when you see them sideways. Before mine disappeared this year, they had that. Definitely pear shaped. Earlier in the year they are straight and skinny.

My guess is that in zone 8 you will still get some stragglers if you leave your feeders up, tho you won't see many..