We have recorded a video on our security camera at 8:23am. With today being the 21st, it makes it 10 days earlier than last year! I'm sure the birds know something we don't...fall/winter will start earlier! I know i was wearing a sweater on our patio in the shade yesterday...nuts! The temps are supposed to drop to below 47 tonight too...Good Grief!
We also didn't have a hard freeze last year til November 4th. At this rate, it might happen a month early! :(
The hummingbird migration has officially started here!
Fall can't get here fast enough as far as I'm concerned. The heat and drought has me worn out. I want to see highs that aren't hovering around triple digits again and get rain again! Migrating hummers coming through will be nice for a while, but then afterward we'll have to say goodbye to them AND our resident family of hummers. Always a hard one.
It is supposed to get down to 59 degrees tonight. My hummers are fat and seem to be feeding at supersonic speed. Last weekend I happened to come across Hamelia patens being sold 2 for 1. They are large plants and in full bloom. I bought 2, potted them, and the hummers have thanked me several times for adding another nectar source to the garden mix. They used to leave in late September, but last year some were still around in October. But this summer is the 3rd coolest in our history and I fear we'll lose the hummers earlier than usual. But I'll keep my feeders out for any late migrators.
I've noticed an increase in hummers and orioles this past week . . .and it feels like fall. Actually, I'm not sure we ever had summer up here! Anyway, I love to see so many birds, but I hate to see them go-I enjoy watching them so.
Still none here.
If I lived in Texas, I'd welcome Autumn too. But up here, I'm sad to see it arrive (except for the hummingbirds).
I MUST win that lottery tonight so that I can be a snowbird.
We had a large brood(s) of babies this year and, for a while I was filling one feeder daily, almost 2 cups. I noticed about 10 days ago many had already left and that is really early for us as there are some that stay until October some years. They must know something we don't. We still have about 6 to 8........hard to count them LOL.
We counted 5 young hummingbirds at one time from the front window yesterday, so we still have several around here visiting the feeders fattening up.
Our tithonia, cypress vines, salvia black and blue, and red zinnias are in full bloom in the front yard, so I'm hoping some hummers passing overhead will see them and stop for refreshments before continuing their journey south.
According to my notes we saw our last hummers in mid October last year.
Around here, summer was way too short. It seemed like the sun rarely shined.
I think I'm going to have to park myself outside!
Mrs Ed, It's a mystery to me why you dont' have hummers all summer. You seem to have so many other birds who are happy in your environment.... I would like to know what they are thinking that they don't visit your feeders.... another anomaly of nature, I guess.
Mrs. Ed: if you haven't tried these plants yet, next spring plant Cuphea schumanii, Cuphea 'David Verity', and Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue. I see all 3 from my kitchen window, and rarely do I not see a hummer at one or more. My Canna Robert Kemp, Canna Indica and Atom Glads also have been mobbed this summer.
Oh...I would LOVE it if the sun rarely shined here in summer! Wish we could send some of our intense, all-day-long hot sun to someone that needs more sun! I would gladly donate half our sunshine and yes, give a month of our summer to make someone else in another state happy! In return, I'll take some rain! I'm so darn sick of the hot sun and the drought! I'm now sitting here sweating in my air-conditioned house. And outside, many of the host trees are dying.
We don't have the drought problem this year,in fact it is raining now, but I am sick of the intense heat also.....can't wait till this summer is over and fall arrives along with the birds.
Thanks Hummer Girl. I'll take a look at some of those plants. I have the Salvia from that list, but not the cuphea.
My list of tubular hummingbird plants is prettty darn long. Maybe it will just take a few years.
Just this morning I noticed that we are down from 15-18 to around 7-8 hummers at the feeders at any given time. I'll be sorry to see them go. They provide a great deal of entertainment!
Barb
Mrs_Ed: this is the first year I tried these 2 specific cupheas, and I have never seen my hummers go all out nuts over any plant like they have these. I even had a male and two females fighting over feeding rights at the C. schumanii, which lasted about 10-15minutes. It was quite a show!
I haven't seen any today . . .(of course that doesn't mean that they haven't been there-I just haven't seen them :-) )
I saw a couple of hummers this morning and think they might be migrating...not sure, but thought they're not our resident ones. What a shock our area must be to migrating birds who stop by. The drought and heat has done a lot of damage. I'm putting out water, birdseed and corn, sometimes other things for wildlife. But most of my remaining plants (not killed off by this horrible summer) won't bloom. Not until the temps go down some. A few will bloom if watered regularly, but most are just surviving and refuse to bloom at all...can't really blame them. Guess I'll put up a hummer feeder tomorrow. I'll probably have to take it in every night...I don't think that the night critters will leave it alone. The coons have destroyed hummer feeders in the past here.
They seem to get mine eventually, too. Taking them in is about the only way to really keep them safe (however, I'm usually way to lazy to actually do this so I spend a lot of money on new feeders!)