First Hummer of the Season

I was out transplanting a firecracker into a bigger pot to put on the deck when this gorgeous little boy flew up to the nearby feeder that i hadn't cleaned since last year. i squirted water at it to keep it away and raced in to clean it and fill it. (it wasn't really too nasty, and i bet he had already been drinking out of it.
i think they may be riding up with the west winds we have been having. i usually don't see too many boys around here, ladies and young ones, sometimes getting their rednecks. then the DP ate a yellow swallow tail!!!! i went to see what she had, too late. this is a really sweet dog who loves nature...eating plants, uprooting plants, chewing pots, chewing on running sprinklers, eating butterflies. her only redeeming quality is she is sweet in between and does help keep the squirrels away. any takers in florida?? will gladly trade her for any seed, even a weed seed.

LOL, Arlene! :)

Terri

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You're lucky Arlene. I'm anxiously awaiting the hummers here in west KY. I've been tracking them on the net and it seems they are about halfway up MS,AL and GA.I've got about 2 weeks to go,maybe 3.I have one feeder cleaned and filled just in case though.

For those of you who want to attract the little dudes and are like me and don't have many flowers yet,take a handful of those silk Christmas poinsettias and tie them close to your feeder.They'll come.

Fill your feeders with 1 part sugar to 4 parts water.Do NOT add coloring of any kind.Wash your feeders with hot water with a little bleach added.Not in the dishwasher and no soap.Only put enough solution in the feeder that the birds can eat in 4 days.Clean and refill every 4 days.More often as the temps rise(you'll have drunk birds)

Gardeners are naturally attracted to hummers and they are great fun.They are bold little birds and aren't afraid of anything.To quote Bob Sargent (high guru of hummers) 'If hummingbirds were the size of crows,we'd all be dead!"

They are a blast to watch and they love your gardens!

"My" hummers are like Hinckley, Ohio's buzzards and the swallows at Capistrano - they arrive on the same day every year - May 2nd.

This is the second year i have been a hummer watcher. last year i didn't see one untl 3/29, this year it's two weeks early, but i suspect this one is a passer through although he is still here this morning. they left last fall a couple of weeks sooner than they had the year before, i figured then it would be a cold winter.

I have been seeing Humming birds for a couple of weeks. One was feeding on a flowering gooseberry last weekend. My cat was sitting near me and the bird came and hovered over her for a bit, not two feet above her head. She just sat there dumbfounded.

I mowed and watered my back lawn this morning for the first time this season. While standing there watching the sprinklers I could hear the hummers chittering away somewhere. Next thing I knew I had three of them dancing in the spraying water for a good ten minutes.

It's like watching a bird ballet. Beautiful!

gee it must be nice to be able to see hummers, all im getting here is more of the same old stuff,,,, snow,snow,snow.western ny does it best.lol. and its still coming down. send up some of that spring weather from florida we're freezing up here.