My father emaild these pics last night, with no explanation:
Friendly Birds!
and...
and.....
Wow!! I bet that is such a cool experience. I know they come close to us when we are by the feeders, and that is a thrill.
Awesome! What fun!!!
How sweet, what great pictures!
All I can say is WOW!
How did you teach the birds to do that? Inquiring minds want to know!
Ann
I've never had them land on my hand. However, one year I had some fun with them. I took a big red hibiscus bloom and stuck it over my ear, under my hair, Hawaiian style. I was astounded that the hummers would come right up to my face. It was neat hearing their wings vibrating and being that close to them. I didn't have any good cameras at the time, so there are no images. I tried it with a silk red flower also and that worked too. Nothing like having one 6 inches or closer to your eyeballs! HAHAHAHA I kept telling my husband about it and he didn't believe me... until he saw it with his own two eyes. My daughters were much younger then and they loved watching them.
Janet
Great photos!!! My Dad used to sit under a tree that I'd hung numerous feeders...the hummies would land on the brim of his hat and buzz all around him. He thoroughly enjoyed it until I told him those little 'sprinkles' he was feeling were hummingbird pee :o) !!!
~ Cat
Cat - LOL!!!
I have been trying for the past year to lure hummers into my yard. I have planted so many red hummer nectar plants and also have two feeders up. No such luck. I have been told so many things about when to expect to see them. Folks just south of me have them year round. Folks just north of me have them now and in the Spring. And the nursery I frequent see them alot in the Spring. In fact, they fly in and out of the greenhouse for the nectar plants at this nursery! And one of the women at work gets them in her yard now and she is about a mile from me. The little birds would have a feast in my yard and would have plenty of different nectar flowers and feeders to choose from. So where are they?
I have even resorted to "decorating" my yard to help them spot my little patch of garden! See photo of my hummer deco!
I am just as frustrated as you are Becky. I have had every red "hummer" plant in my yard for the past 6 months and a feeder up for the whole time.
It's my own dumb fault cause a couple of weeks ago i was on the lanai talking on the phone and saw one near the feeder. I screamed so loudly that I scared it and haven't seen one since.
But since this area of The Villages is only 1 year old, I figure it will take a while for the birds to find us. Today I saw my first yellowthroat. Last week a quick first visit by an oriole. I have a pair of brown thrashers who live in the bushes behind my house, some mockingbirds who visit and a bunch of mourning doves that I feed. So I am getting more hopeful that eventually the hummers will find us. Karen
Love the red decorations! They should be able to see those from the next county!!! :o)
I put up two feeders at the ranch last week. Everything has been so dry out there but we have gotten some recent rains which made all the native brush and wild flowers and weeds sprout. There were no hummies to be seen but somehow throughout all the bareness they've appeared. Dad now sits out at his workshop and watches the hummies from under the safety of the roof :o)
~ Cat
WOW thatis just so neat to have them eating out of your hand, I also have planted different plants the hummingbirds like and had SEVERAL feeders out we had a few but the man ACROSS the street had FLOCKS and just two feeders:( he has been there several years feeding and I have just moved here this year. I am thinking they just haven't gotten the NEWS Jesse and his butterfly and hummingbird garden is open for business LOL but I am planting more plants and will start praying much more for the little fellows to Flock my yard
Jesse
Lol Becky, well, if the hummers don't like that decorated, I'm sure Santa will!
I've heard they will eat out of your hand like that when they are getting ready to migrate.
Perhaps to say goodbye?
I can't get hummingbirds at this house either. My neighbors on either side of me get hummers all the time and I have tried too. They are due in my area on May 10th. I've heard that they send out scouts to find food so I put feeders out a week early. Arrrgghh! They don't come here; at my last house, I had them all the time. I sent my dh a copy of the photo of them eating out of a hand, that is just too cool!!
the things we remember.Two years ago were were blessed with a large crop of shiro,Japanese yellow plums,liquid honey i call it.Well one morning i heard sounds of hummers raising cain.i looked over at the tree and saw at least 20 hummers drunk as skunks and was having a barroom fight.last year no plums.this year i'm praying for no late frosts and for my camera ready to go.
Hello all,
I'm new to this forum, and with spring approaching, I thought I would post the source for the photos of the woman feeding hummingbirds.....(My sister told me about the website!)
http://www.abigailsings.com/hummingbirds/
On her website she explains how she got the hummingbirds to sit on her hands, so people who are interested may want to give it a try. If they succeed, I hope they post photos here.
I just got hummingbirds in my yard in the last 2 years, so I'm going to give it a try.
That's really neat! Thanks bigmikan for posting the website!
I will be soooo jealous in a few more weeks when everyone starts seeing their little birds return. I'm on my third year of trying to entice them to my yard. No luck, but I live vicariously through all of you! :-) :-)
Now I know where i had seen this pic....it was, for some reason, in the Austin paper at one time...so I thought Austin wa the site...now I know better....would love to have one of those pics...fantastic photography
There are hundreds of Alfano photos, including more birds, at this link:
http://www.pbase.com/sam_and_abigail
Donn,
I didn't see these other photos! I was especially tickled by the photo of the lady in the polka dot skirt and garter belt (!).
Ha!
Happytrail128,
It's funny but there are just zones where there don't seem to be hummingbirds. My family lived in Niagara Falls and we *never* had hummingbirds. Last year my brother moved to Grand Island and there are tons of them there. It's hard to think that just the width of the Niagara Rivers is somehow a boundry to having/not having hummingbirds but I guess it is. :(
I didn't get to see hummingbirds until I moved to Indiana and then I couldn't believe how plentiful they were! I thought they were a rarity!