Monterey, is that Cuphea in the lower left corner of your photo? Would you know its full botanic and common names?
There's a meadow in a local state park that, unfortunately, is being leased by a tree farmer that has planted loblolly pines that will bring an end to the meadow as we love it in not too many years.
The thing is, there's an unusual variety of summer meadow wildflowers that bloom there (unusual for overly manicured "open space" here) - tuff stuff like sweeps of centaurea, heliopsis, rudbeckia sp., milkweed, oxeye daisies, anthemis, some type of blue labiate (looks like a lobelia), detford pinks (spelling?), sisyrinchium sp., Bells of Ireland, penstemmon, asters, thistle, goldenrod, etc. Honeysuckle, thumbtear, five-leaf creeper, etc. run rampant over everything.
And, in just one spot I could see, coming up through major-duty bullies like wild grasses and daisies in the middle of the trail, was a "delicate looking" plant with sticky flowers that looked just like the plant in the lower left corner of your photo.
Wutizit, please?
Do you still have hummingbirds?
That is Salvia greggii cultivater name "Dark Dancer"
I thought my hummers were gone, but left the feeders out just in case. This morning, one little fella came several times to drink.
Same here, darius.
That's why they leave. Where is my food?
Around these parts it has more to do with day length, Rich.
http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html
That's a map of the first sightings on the northward trip. He says he doesn't chart the southern one.
Read further. Click the the ruby throated migration link for a 'discusion' of the migrations!
I still have 12-18 regulars and up to 30 passing thru. They bathe in the dew on the banana leaves. The midrib of the leaf makes a good bathtub for them.
We have year round hummers. The ones here now I think are mostly Ruby Throats and Rufus. Lots of juveniles and females and I can't tell what they are.
I have been trying to get some pictures but I think I need the good camera from work, lol. My camera won't focus on them.
My last one was on Sept 29th in central KY
Hello baby! Hey! do you have this Salvia Waverly at your house? Sweet! 12:04 P.M. today, while buying new Salvias.
I'm sad to say that mine are gone. Things got crazy here for a while and I forgot to change the sugar water for a week. This is the first year I've put out feeders, so I don't know if they left because it was time or because of my neglect. I put fresh sugar water in them and put them back out, but still nobody. I guess until next spring, I'll have to go her for my hummer fix.
Mine are gone too, jdee. The Californians are rubbing it in but, little do they know how they are helping us cope!!
Keep putting it out , give it a week or so more.
My 4 little Annas are still here and still chattering away at me while in the garden.....they certainly let me know when the feeders are low or need cleaned. :-)
I miss that little sound. I bought a new feeder on clearance. I will be waiting for them next April.
I'm still here! This morning.
Mine come on April 7th and leave on October 7th - just like clockwork. They have been doing this over 10 years, and of course they may sneak in earlier and I might miss them, but I really watch and haven't seen them earlier than April 7th- and I haven't seen one since the 7th of this month. I miss the little rascals. I really love them.
Hi, I have a sister in Madison, TN and she has them a little later than here in KY too.
We are blessed with year around Anna's. One named Mama has four nests now in our clematis, resulting in over twenty tapes of babies growing up, flight practise, and leaving the nest. The kids stay around, so our population grows each year. A true highlight of our days is to relax in the backyard at the feeders at evening feeding frenzy and watch the air shows. One daughter flies in the open door next to my computer every morning to say hello, one son will follow me while I work in the front yard and hover to watch my progess. I truly don't know what life would be like without them.
I saw your pictures at your site and it inspired me to try to do the same . I am slowly building a small band of little guys here but so far they seem to fight more than share. It still is fun to have them and I will enjoy feeding and watching them . Thanks Ladyannne!
Goodness, thanks for visiting my pages! We, too, have some serious disputes, and I beg them to consider the fact the feeders sit six at one time, but it hasn't worked yet.
Your pictures are incredible. Still trying to get my digital to do what I want it to do here to produce that quality.
Hi! your the reason I get food here! Signed Ms. Cranky!
Great shot!! Ok, what are you using, camera wise. How are you doing these?? Sigh....back to my 35 maybe?
Fuji S5000. This is the camera I will be getting. www.digitalreview.ca/cams/cp8800.shtml
This message was edited Oct 18, 2004 11:44 AM
My goodness, I guess I had better start saving my pennies!! We finally bought a digital, but it is certainly lacking.
This is my current camera. www.dpreview.com/review/fujifilms5000/
Page not found, but I did find it on another site. Nice. Very nice!
That link doesn't work. go to www.dpreview.com then look up in cameras Fuji S5000. It's a nice camera only 3.2 mgs, the upgrade(also at dpreview) is 4 mg. In the $350-400 range now.
Thanks! Still, a bit beyond my means, but I can always hope Santa delivers one?
This was at 5:30 P.M. today. A red head. Is this an Anna ?
That certainly appears to be an Anna. In some lights, their colouring can be as red as a true Christmas red. In others, like the blurry fiasco below, they are a scarlet pink. This is the trouble with my camera, it can't think if something is moving in front of the lens. At least you can see the brillance and colour of this Anna.
This shot is from 30ft away, not the best but it shows the color change . The other pic is a minute later at the feeder
What are you going to do with your old camera? Sniff..... LOL!!
Back-up always have a spare.
Please keep posting new pics. I can enjoy your vistors too.
Thanks,
Teresa
Monterey, I was thinking of you and your battling hummers this morning while I watched my own entertainment here on the other side of the planet. 3 sunbird males were chasing each other all over my garden and 4 adjacent gardens...back and forth whizzing right past my head not even caring that I was a human in the close vicinity....and chattering at each other non-stop. It was hilarious. None of them attempted to attack the others, just a very very VERY high-speed chase that left me tired just watching. Then after about 30 minutes of this warp-speed non-stop action, the "cause" of all the commotion showed up in the garden too....a female. ROTLFMAO. They sure were showing off something fierce for her attention LOL. Try as I might to get a shot of them in action, it was all just too fast paced. I even attempted to stand in one spot, with camera focused on a particular branch or the like which I'd seen them perch on at least twice for a split second before diving into a frenzy again, but then the little brats decided to avoid those spots from then on, leaving me standing there for many minutes like a dummy. I did get one in flight photo but I had to move my camera so fast to keep up with him that it ended up just one big black and blue blur in the frame LOL. It was great fun watching them and their antics this morning though. I'm glad they ignored me in "their" terrain and went about their silly behavior as if I wasn't there. Great entertainment. :-)
Here's one of the little guys on a 5 second nectar break - to catch his breath and to replenish some of the foolishly spent energy ;-)
-Julie
Here's another of the males taking a very short break before one of the other two males came charging at him again. The three of them would chase each other at the speed of light right through these little holes in the fencing...and then right past my face. I half expected one of them to knock himself senseless on that metal fencing.....or worse yet, to impale my forehead with his beak! LOL Cheeky and cute little buggers they were this morning :-)
From the same bunch of guys.
And here's the female in flight...my "standing with camera focused" technique worked with her. She perched in a tree and I just kept my camera on her while I listened to the males approaching....and yep, when they got too close, she flew away and I got the flight shot. The males were far too quick though.
