Still nothing. I'm trying to keep the feeders fresh, and outside, but my hearts not been in it lately. I have red salvia near the two locations where I keep feeders. At least I know that if they happen to come by and the feeders aren't out, they'll have that.
The ruby throated hummingbirds are on the move!
I finally saw my first one two days ago! I was resting on some bags of compost and saw it at my salvias. :)
Don't forget to report your 'first' at the above link! Lateness of their arrival is important too ;-)
konkrete~
Wassup? Can't you afford a pillow?
Oh yes, I totally forgot about that! I've been so busy. My husband is on vacation so we've been enlarging the backyard bed. (which means taking out a lot of grass!)
flyboy, when you live in the garden, the bags of compost are the perfect pillow! (in my case, actually a chair)
konkrete~
My dearest wife convinced me, years ago, to strip out the lawn. But, she also convinced me to lay down some environmental fabric and cover it with river rock. What a pleasure! And we don't have to irrigate. A shot of Roundup now and then, and that's all. And, hope your dear husband is enjoying his vacation!
flyboy, please take your non gardening comments to the "Parking lot" forum and leave us in true hopes of spotting our hummers and flutterbys.
Thanks,
Sidney
As of yesterday .. we have three hummers here. There's a mating pair .. and one other male. Which incidently - is undoubtedly, no new-comer !! .. He's actin' like he knows the place - and very well !!! This feller flies to the same perchin' spot in the same few particular trees, and under the porch to sit on the plant hangin' brackets too! Makes his way around the house, to check out the back porch - but we've not put up any hummer feeders around there yet. Wanted to wait a bit .. to see what the two around front draw in, over the next couply weeks or so.
This 'debonair' feller with the 'tude .. is jes much too familiar with things here and about! He's jes gotta be one of the Roosts' prior visitors ... The other two, seem at a loss of sorts, and aren't quite sure if we pose a threat, or what, jes yet. The other feller .. jes don't seem to give a hoot, either way! .. lol ..
Could never master getting a shot of all three feudin' over the two feeders hangin' on the front porch. The dynamic duo are jes too engrossed in each other to pause long near the porch. Let alone, gettin' half-a-chance, to feed for any significant amount of time .. But, did manage to get a few shots of mr. Ben Around .. in his tux and red bow tie, dining elegantly! .. LOL ..
- Magpye
This message was edited Apr 15, 2005 4:19 PM
Beautiful shot, Magpye
Him's gotsa purdy 'kercheif, too!! Did you report him Mags?
Ohhh Mags, is his name Sidney? lol ;>)
Yep, I did !!! .. Fer thar haint no self-respectin' hummer gone be caught in 'ese hills, dressed lik'at - and not spect to stand out like a sore thumb, I tell ya! .. He oughta be booked and fingerprinted for carvoit'in about lik'at !!
LOL .. (*I jes had to tease a bit, John: jes had to!*) .. I'd've not been able to leave that one alone - fer fearin' it'd keep me awake tonite .. gigglin' to myself repeatedly* ...
But, yessireesirs ImWay - I sure will !! .. Dang, there's already so many 'dots' on that map .. my lil sightin's'll jes blend into the cornmeal mush of life! .. But, will do .. Thanks so much, for remindin' me too!!
- Magpye
Mags, just think of it as a chance to 'report' one of the good guys! (for being!) Guess what? Thats my dot just south of the Red on March 25. First ever for me!
Ahhh, shucks guys .. ImWay, sugar, flyboy ... yall are jes too sweet!!
(*blushin' pink .. on top of my poor sunburnt ears, here*)
'Sidney', 'ey? .. hee .. sugarweed .. hun, you feel free to call him anything your heart desires. .. LOL ..
The trouble is .. I haint gonna be able to tell one from the other soon. I figger it's only because mr show off knows all the crooks & crannies round here right now - but in no time, every body and their brothers'll know the place like the backs of their hands. (scuse me: their wings-?-) .. hee
The strangest thing - that the hummers and the butterflies have a ravenous appetite for .. get this > the dandburn'd dandelion flowers!
Yep .. indeed .. I'd not weed-treated the lawn grasses (for the weeds seem to make up the bulk of our grass here - hee) - but there's been dozens upon dozens of butterflies all over the dandelions, and now the hummers are visiting them too! Many of the dandelion flowers are now going to seed too tho' ... But I truly thought it was mitey peculiar that the Dandelion flowers .. were much favored over the Dianthus, Petunias, Clematis, Bleeding Hearts, Redbud and Dogwood blooms, etc.! That - or, I've seen (and learned) something - that I'd never noticed before!! Heck, anything's possible these days ..
Sure proud to have these lil jewels back tho'. Watchin' their antics (greedy or not!), and seeing all of the many pitters of them, here on DG .. truly brings a big ol smile to my face, enormous joy to my heart, and a good giggle or two to my gitty up!! .. lol ..
Ya know - I'm hopin' that others will continue to post here .. and maybe tell us how many they are seeing already, around their homes/places ... I was truly suprised to find the three already!
Now .. I'd sure like to see some plenty other folks post their hummer pitters and sightings !! I'm anxiously waitin' them all !!
John, get these folks hoppin' now .. will ya ?!? ... (*huggerooners*)
- Magpye
Welll, reckon I'm jes gonna have to go take another long hard look then! A most wonderful 1st indeed then!! .. I'm plum tickled and d'lited for ya John!! ... Been long overdue fer ya !!
If you don't mind my askin' (here, that is) - did you ever fetch yourself a digital ? (can ya tell that I've been out of the circle, fer a spell - can't remember beans about much of anythin'!! .. sorry ..
- Magpye
Yep I did get a digital. A Canon S1 IS but, it is not the camera your Fuji is. Because of my disappointment I have not used it much. I will have to relearn how to use it again and give it another whirl. I am not happy with myself that I gave up so easily!
It IS so wonderful to have them little buggars back isn't it? Trouble is, I still haven't seen another since March 25! Go figure. LOL
Yea, what happened to that Canon?
Mags you know those little rechargeable vacs that we all had in the 70s? Maybe you could walk around the yard with one and suck all those floaty seeds right off the dandys before the wind sweeps them to new spots to take root. I'm the same way, if they bring in my buddies, I cant kill em.
I heard today that if you live in high traffic, hummers won't come around.
My street is 4 lane and busy. Phoey, phoey, phoey!
Sidney
Time to move? Hummers or traffic? Seems like an easy call!!
Hahahahhah. Don't you know I want to, but I'll work on the backyard now I know.
I guess you think Sherman would be a good rlocation site, huh?
Or, in the country not far from Sherman! Heck, they even have a big time mall there!
I saw my second GUY yesterday! This time I was working in the garden and he flew almost into my nose.I saw his wonderful colors and he hung around for a bout a minute.I was out of town for a week so I imagine that he,or his brothers,have been visiting.The first guy I saw was on March 27th.Where are the ladies?
Magpye,I have enjoyed your photos.Thanks for posting them.I still don't have a digital camera.My father was in the photo supply business.Maybe thats the reason.
.
Haven't seen any hummers yet, even though the map puts our area around 4/11. Where are the Maryland hummerwatchers?
Sugarweed, were you looking for hummers above or below your mimosa? I don't have it in me to do the pruning for this idea, but I've often thought it would be fun to train a mimosa about 3' tall and 5' wide, so that I could look down upon it from our porch. Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter and the Rabbit would be topiar-ied in box or some woody plant, sitting around the table, and tea time would never be the same in Oella.
Can you folks recommend the best digital camera for the least money?
Well, guess I'd better get busy with seed of 4'oclock and salvia coccinea and cypress vine. Thanks for this thread, everyone. (PS - these flowers all come in white, which gets visited by hummingbirds, here, and imagine them with Alice's tea garden at twilight with moonflowers and nicotania and ...)
Too funny, bluespiral! You've got my mind racing about the mimosa bonsai.
Well, the operative word on the mimosa is "had". I needed more sun so I sawed it off at about 42". I am putting a table-top on it. It was messy and didn't seem to intice any of the little Boogers. I now have roses. and clemantis and all sorts of other beautiful plants back there. I do get Flutterbys and guess I'll have to be content there.
Sidney
If its like my mimosa "it will be back." My local species suckers like crazy!
Well, I shave off all attempts. This was a volunteer that had grown to 30' in 7 years. It had one trunk about 9" across and another forked trunk with two 3" trunks left about 6' tall. It leaves alot of chances to be creative, plant stands, bird feeders, etc.
I guess I'll start moving my hummer stuff to the backyard.
Sidney
Sugarweed, blues and violets and purples go well with just about any color of rose - how 'bout smuggling in some sage like Salvia guarnitica or its hybrids like S. 'Indigo Spires' or S. 'Purple Majesty'? These get huge in one season, so either balance them with larger climbers or shrubs or set them at least 5' from lower bush roses.
These are such great hummer attractors, that, in my garden, the hummers won't let any other life form except us gardeners near them. It was the strangest thing last summer - as soon as the hummers left, all sorts of winged critters seemed to appear out of nowhere in that part of the garden.
Well, tea with the Mad Hatter is only a fantasy to me - I'm a "let-er-rip" gardener. We exert ourselves for a while in the spring and then some in the fall, but we really must allow ourselves time to appreciate the hummers when they arrive, so constant nipping is actually not our cup of tea.
But you've set "my mind racing" about applying the saw to some trees in my garden, now. Crepe myrtle 'Natchez', better watch out...
OH no what kind of saw monsters have I created, lol.
I have a Mexican petunia, and all sorts of goodies. I'll put my 2 pots of blue salvia there and some of my others too. I have a few Brugs too they might want.
Sidney
Build it and they will come!! My hummers or butterflies cannot resist any Salvia!
Mwa-ha-ha - this is what goes on in my mind during tea! The pair of Natchez at the gate make lovely fluted columns with their dappled, muscle-y bark, and that part of the garden would suffer without them. But when it comes to creating patches of sun in our mostly shady garden, I transmute into the Saw Monster like Jekyll/Hyde when I contemplate all the sun-loving flowers and herbs I'm not growing.
Natchez has nothing to worry about - DH loves it and helps me keep my garden dreams and schemes in balance with reality. Impatiens anyone?
Ha! To be politically correct, I don't think were supposed to even like crepe myrtle but, I can't bring myself to cut mine down!
I'm now on the west coast of Florida, just below the "breeding range" color on the map. But there also is a sighting south of me. Does anyone have a theory as to why southern Florida is outside the "breeding range"?
I "think" southern Florida and points south are the normal wintering range. Maybe the "sighting" was a nest sighting? You might consider emailing the webmaster of that website and report back to us.
John
Aye, aye sir!
Saw the first female yesterday. She was so skinny and arrived on the coldest and windy-est day in weeks. She sat on the feeder for about 5 minutes drinking. Hope she survived last night - it got down to 34 here. Becky
imway~
John:
As you suggested, I wrote the FL webmaster of that site. And, I'm still waiting for a response.
But, I am up in NJ this weekend -- and nary a sight of my hummers. It IS cold, and I don't blame them for maybe taking a delay enroute. The red and golden finches are in abundance, and happy to see the feeders in place.
Becky, sounds like she ate well, I'm sure she did survive!
Brad, we wait. It is cold in Texas, too. (37) Have not seen my 2nd hummer!??!
John
(sung to the tune of, "Where have the flowers gone.")
Where have the hummers gone, long time passing -----
___________________
John, maybe yours was a holdover "breeder."
Thank goodness it's gonna be warm in FL tomorrow -- and I'll be there.
The holdovers are on the gulf coast I am on the Red River. The flowers always come back so will the hummers!
They are here!! Saw my first hummer on Thursday afternoon late. Haven't seen any more, though it's been cold and rainy. I will put up more feeders this week and keep my fingers crossed and my eyes open.