It's my favorite bird-watch time of year...

16 years ago

...the return of the hummers to your zone!

Keep an eye out and please report your first sighting in your zone!

Every year, I run out and buy more humming bird feeders that never get used by my solo hummer. So, this year, I bought some blue salvia. I will be adding more hummer favorite plants in preparation of the hummer arrival.

I'm hoping my female hummer returns safely. I've never seen any others...just the one, lone female.

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Comments (10)

goldenpond
16 years ago
Mine love firespike so I have it everywhere. They also enjoy flamevine,honeysuckle,justicas and cherokee bean.
I agree they take your breath away!
SaintPFLA
Original Author
16 years ago
I know that females are very territorial, so I wonder if that is why I always have just the one female. It would be interesting if it was the same one...and not just a different female.

I planted flamevine last year specifically to attracts hummers. Oddly, as invasive as everyone says it is, it hasn't grown more than a foot in a year. It's probably in too much shade.

I'm not having much luck with my native trumpet honeysuckle either. It's not exactly what I'd call 'thriving'.
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I'm back from a weekend in Charlottesville and seeing Tufton Farms, which was lovely! It was great to see you Connie! It took all my willpower not to buy more roses after your talk. Ann, almost all my peonies bloomed except for a few I had transplanted or newly planted last fall which hadn't settled in. Christopher, I got my Quatre Saesons Royale from Sherando roses which is no longer doing business. Randy thought it was slightly different from the Four Season Rose hence the name, but I now forget what the difference is and don't have the other to compare. This one stays small (it does suffer from blackspot later on and is runty) and I just snap the buds off and not prune it back, but I could try to take some cuttings for you. Gringo, I think Munstead Woods is my favorite red! I would recommend it. Thanks La vie. My roses have picked up in my absence and are almost fully bloom now! Here's a shot with Cornelia, Constance Spry, and The Generous Gardener
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2010 was great for us. It was one of our wettest years here. I just loved it. The garden did really well and I didn't have to expend much energy watering it in order to keep it happy. I remember that ice storm and all the damage it did in your part of the state. It was stunning to see how long it took to cut down all the trees and get the broken limbs and collapsed trees off the power lines and get the power grid up and running. I know I am going to jinx myself by saying this, but we've been here since 1999 and never have had an ice storm come far enough south to hit us and cause that type of trouble. The closest one damaged trees maybe 3 to 5 miles north of us. We've had several rounds of freezing rain that did coat the power lines and trees, but they didn't bring down the power lines or tree limbs. We've been incredibly fortunate. I know that Marietta was hit by a storm like that about 10 years before we moved here, and our local electric co-op had to replace miles of power lines and tons and tons of poles. Ever since then, they have worked very hard to keep trees trimmed way back from the power lines in order to avoid a repeat of that year. One year Tim and I were at Wal-Mart in Gainesville on the day after a fairly mild snow/sleet storm. Our VFD was paged out to a pasture fire. We were shaking our heads because we've just driven though that area a few minutes earlier and knew that everything was covered with ice and snow. How could anything burn? When our son got to the fire in the brush truck, he found a power line had fallen, and apparently it melted the snow/sleet enough to catch the ice-coated grass on fire. That's sort of our all-time strangest fire. I'd like a nice, calm winter with some pretty snowy days that don't coat the roads with ice and cause problems, but that's asking for a lot here in OK. The good thing about our winters is that there is so much variability in them, so that whatever weather we are having, good or bad, won't last long and next week we'll have different weather from whatever we've had this week. At least we get those occasional warm, pretty, sunny days instead of having months of endless gray skies and gloom. The yard is so depressing today---browned and blackened foliage and limp blooms where we had tons of green foliage and bright flowers in bloom just a couple of days ago. It has been cloudy all day and I am tempted to say that I am "over winter" and ready for spring, but the truth is that winter isn't even here yet. A few years ago, I jinxed us by saying we only had hail an average of 1 time a year, and some years never had hail at all. So, what happened? That year we were hit by hail on 11 different occasions. Now, I guess I should be expecting an ice storm in the winter of 2013-14. The one little bright spot in the garden is a couple of Laura Bush petunia plants that had some freeze damage but which also still have some green leaves and small, barely-damaged flowers. Two plants isn't much to get excited about, but it is better than nothing.
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abendwolke
16 years ago
yesssss, they are ba-ack! :-)
Just saw 4 of them zooming around in my back yard.

Evelyn
SaintPFLA
Original Author
16 years ago
Yippeee! I haven't seen any so far in St. Pete. Glad to know they are arriving!

Where are you in zone 9? Were the ones that you saw onlyn males or females or mixed?

Time to buy some firespike and blue salvia! :)
abendwolke
16 years ago
There was for sure one male and two females, I am not sure about the fourth one. I am Southeast Orlando area :-)

Evelyn
beth7happy
16 years ago
I saw one today...coral honeysuckle...beautiful tiny green thing..... sure hope it comes back!!! I've never, ever had any luck with feeders, but have seen them on the coral honeysuckle, firespike and penta...wish there were LOTS, but am happy to have seen just this first one! :)
beth7happy
16 years ago
forgot to mention the others: doves, mockingbirds, grackles-common and boat-tailed, sparrows, painted buntings, blue jays, woodpeckers, yellow throated warbler, phoebe or flycatcher - not sure. yellow rumped warbler, turkey buzzards, crows. ducks flying over - don't know what brand. white ibis, lord and lady cardinal. cormorant flying over..woodstork. Think that's it for today. I love this time of year, too...especially for the birds. Have not seen the robins in a few days now, and the goldfinches flitted on through...only stopped for a very, very short time this year..yesterday I saw two..today nothing. No orioles yet, either, nor cedar waxwings...hoping maybe for this week, tho....it was the first week of March last year.
msmarion
16 years ago
Well the robins must have come back south to our house Beth.
There had to be over 100 in my yard this afternoon between 3:30 and 5:00. They swarmed our overgrown ficus and live oak. They let me know the birdbath was empty too. I went our and filled it up and spent the next half hour watching them take turns bathing and drinking. I was on the phone telling Butterflygardener that I need an air trffic controller! when another 30 flew in.
There were blue jays and cardinals a woodpecker all hanging out! It was very exciting. The robins all flew off toghether in just an instant and all was quiet.
bunnyhouse
16 years ago
Ihave to agree with you all, this too is my favorite bird time of the year. Friday we had a flock of little green parrots land in the tree in the yard, my cardinal pair is back with last years babies, and last Sunday I saw my first pair of newly hatched Sandhill Crane babies. My binoculars stay in my kitchen window this time of year so I can be ready for feathered sightings.
beth7happy
16 years ago
oh NEAT! I've never seen green parrots in the wild.....must be SOOO great! Where are you located, BunnyHouse? Ahh...Marion...maybe I'll get to see the robins again, then, before they head north!

It's my favorite bird-watch time of year...

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It's my favorite bird-watch time of year...

Comments (10)

SaintPFLAOriginal Author

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