Can't beat getting a springtime hummer!

19 years ago

Saw my first hummingbird of the season this morning. Here in the DC area we put the feeders out every April 15 and the hummingbirds usually show up within a week or two. On the east coast we only get ruby throats, but when I was down in Austin last month I saw a totally different yellow type. There's not a lot of migration research so far, but it's thought that ruby throats may return to near the place they were born, possibly using the same feeders each year. We've had nesting birds in the yard for the past 8 or 9 years and it's very entertaining watching the males try to stake out a feeder and keep watch over it. Fights are common; like little dive bombers.

Larry

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Comments (15)

alfie_md6
19 years ago
Oh my goodness, Larry. For a second, I thought you were saying you can't beat getting a springtime Hummer.

Adding "put up hummingbird feeder" to her to-do list,
Alfie
JohnnieB
19 years ago
Hummingbirds are regular visitors in my garden once the cannas, Lobelia cardinalis and other summer flowers start blooming but for some reason they never show up before June, even though I plant plenty of early-blooming plants to attract them like Aquilegia canadensis and Spigelia marilandica.
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I've been in my house for six years now. And I think the most important thing we do for birds is we don't use pesticides. Ever. When we first moved in, we saw the occasional mocking bird, cardinal, jay and dove. After three years of no pesticides, we had cardinals, doves, jays, mocking birds and finches all nesting in the yard and Mexican Orioles and Amazon parrots stopping by. We also saw a lot more butterflies and even some hummers. Fast forward another three years and I saw a painted bunting a couple weeks ago. We also have gold finches and several birds I haven't identified yet. And I have a very small yard. Yes, I plant natives wherever I can find room. But I think the most important thing I have done is make sure that there are bugs in my yard. A lot of these birds eat bugs. You can't plant bugs, you just have to put up with them. I caught my cardinals eating caterpillars off dying tomato plants at the end of the season a couple years ago. And I know you can attract cardinals with a good seed mix, but they also need to eat bugs. And I only realized the caterpillar feast was happening because my boy cardinal made so much noise, calling his mate, to let her know that there was a caterpillar feast to be had on the dying tomatoes. This was in April, when the tomatoes are pretty much done down here. Earlier in the season, I would have been out squishing caterpillars, or even spraying with soap. I do what I can to protect tomato plants - but my limit is chemicals. And when the plant is dying, I let it die in the yard, and feed the bugs which feed the birds. I also have one large trees that several birds nest in every year, and I have shrubs - some birds won't nest up high. They want low shrubs. And even birds who nest up high, like cardinals, need shrubs nearby for when they kick the babies out of the nest.
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It is humid, windy and very rainy here in Southern CT but my hummer is still here - feeding every half hour! Also have a chicadee who thinks she is a hummer and tries the feeder every now and then..fun to watch. Other friends still have theirs also. Amazing how intelligent these little ones are..with some uncanny ability to know just when to leave. I have tried to get a hummer for years before they started to come about 3 years ago. This is the first year I have had any luck having one stay. Thanks for all the tips from everyone - next year I plan to have a lot more plants - and will try to winter some of my gardenmeister fushia and maroon salvia - they seem to really like these plants. I am enjoying every second watching my hummer and hope it flys safely and comes back next year. I just wonder when they will leave... Carol
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Dawn beat me to it........
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Comments (19)
Jeannie, I used his books (Roadside Fruits of Oklahoma and Roadside Trees and Shrubs of Oklahoma) to help me figure out what a lot of our understory plants were in the woodlands. It took me ages and ages and lots of other books too to get a good understanding of the diverse group of plants found in different places on our property. Every now and then I see a Rayless Gaillardia on our property, but it isn't terribly common. It usually is in a pasture that also has lots of clasping coneflower, which tends to be more aggressive and crowd it out. With wildflowers, you never know what you'll have in any given year because they ebb and flow naturally depending on what the weather was like in the previous year and depending on how well they survived or reseeded or the seed germinated or whatever. This has been a good year for regular gaillardia but I don't think I've seen any rayless ones yet. I usually see them later in the year, but with early heat this year, who knows when they'll appear? Because rainfall was so heavy in the autumn through spring, we had huge amounts of cool-season grasses and forbs. However, that presents a problem in and of itself because when the cool-season plants are that abundant and tall and thick, they can shade out the warm-season ones and keep them from growing much and getting established. Then you have a poorer stand of warm-season plants as long as the cool-season vegetation is still standing. This morning I was outside early with the string trimmer cutting back a large area we have not mowed at all this year because it had gotten too tall to cut with the riding mower. We left that field standing with no mowing so the cool-season flowers could disperse their seeds. Now that the seeds have been dispersed naturally, I cut back all the dormant, standing vegetation and am hoping that we'll get a good stand of warm-season stuff. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. It kinda depends on whether enough rain falls soon to help the young warm-season plants establish. In an area where I haven't cut yet, the warm-season plants are only about 2" tall. I'll just cut the cool-season vegetation a tiny bit taller than the warm-season stuff so I'm not chopping off the tops of the warm-season plants. I only cut back about a quarter-acre. There's a couple more acres to cut, but I think they still are short enough that we can cut them with the riding mower. I hate to cut the tall grasses in May because it leaves the bunnies much more exposed. They put their nests closer to our yard full of dogs and cats than they should for their own sake. With the current dryness and having already had a big grassfire across the road from us, I want to cut everything possible down as short as we reasonably can without cutting it so short that the plants won't come back. It seems like a really good wildflower year so far, but only time will tell if that continues to be true under the current drought conditions. Last May, with abundant rainfall, many wildflowers germinated in May and into June, and then promptly dried up/burnt up in July before they even bloomed. I don't know that's there's been enough May rainfall to get much of anything growing if it already wasn't up when what little rain we have had was falling. Another grass fire here today....and it is much, much too early for that. Our area seems about as dry right now as it was around the first of July last year and that makes me incredibly uneasy. Dawn
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Post Your Springtime Garden Pictures!
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Comments (26)
Here's some shots of things over here. Lots of blooms, unusual things, and buzzing here. Albino banana. Pretty to look at but it burns to a crisp in direct sunlight. And its also useless. Cherimoya blooms. Looks like a good year for cherimoya. I got three new seedlings blooming this year. Longan blooms. WTH...yeah its crested. unusual. Emperor lychee. New planting this year after the kuini in this spot died from the cold snap. New guanabana plantings. New plantings, the two large ones here didn't make it through the cold snap either. Guavas. Begining to bloom. Its alive!!!! Its a Nam Doc Mai mango. The cold snap left all the limbs burn and dead, a few survived and is begginning to push new growth. Bananas. Beginning to push out a bloom. Persimmons. Lots of bloom this year. Almost all the blooms looks to be on new growth, a little unusual as we usually get blooms by themselves or vegetative growth and not so much together. Pummelos. 3 and a half years!!! Since I grafted over an old citrus tree in the yard with pummelos. Finally the grafts are begginning to bloom. Usually doesn't take this long but who knows why this one pummelo did. Grapes, not very tropical but I'm hoping to get some fruits this year And a swarm of bees under the cherimoya tree. =) Also lots and lots of cherry tomatoes beginning to sprout up. I spent 15 bucks on seeds!
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breezyb
19 years ago
Oooh - that must mean that mine aren't far behind - unless they're already here but hiding!!

Normally I see hummers before I see Barn Swallows, but the Barn Swallows have arrived already.
marymd7
19 years ago
Saw my first hummingbird of the season just last night. S/he was very busy working the columbine.
creatrix
19 years ago
Here's a map of how far they've gotten- way up into New Engaland!

Scroll down a bit to see the US-

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Migration Map
kimka
19 years ago
Thanks for the notice. I'll get my feeder up directly.
collectordi
19 years ago
One year I saw one on the lilacs. Yup, time to put up the feeder.
bengz6westmd
19 years ago
Yeah, I didn't see, but certain I heard several hummers chasing each other a couple days ago. Better clean up the feeder...
marymd7
19 years ago
Do you all use hummmingbird feeders? I have more than 13 birdfeeders in my yard, but don't put up hummingbird feeders because they're such a pain to keep clean. I find that I still have tons of hummers every summer just drawn to my flowers alone.
aka_peggy
19 years ago
I've heard them but haven't been fast enough to see them yet.

The feeder is up and ready. It is a pain, especially when it gets warmer out because it has to be changed so often. Like Johnnie, if I don't put up the feeder I don't see them until much later. I love sitting on the front porch and watching them dive bomb each other and then light in the holly tree near by.

I planted lobelia cardinalis and aquilegia canadensis last yr in my little tiny woodland garden.
JohnnieB
19 years ago
Well, now I have to eat my words--I just saw a hummingbird in my garden, visiting bleeding hearts and columbine. In five years this is by far the earliest I've ever seen one.
bengz6westmd
19 years ago
Johnnieb, maybe your observing skills have just gotten better. :)

Where I used to live in Blacksburg, VA, I'd take a hanging feeder, set it in my lap, and the hummers would, after some hesitation, start sipping from it. While there they'd eye me suspiciously, & one or two would buzz around my head, sorta checking me out. I'd have a hard time keeping from laughing.
cynthia_gw
19 years ago
Mary, I rely on the plants to draw the hummers too. Haven't seen one yet, but I don't spend a lot of time looking either. As soon as the first bloom appears on the gartenmeister fuschia, they'll be here. Just dragged that out of gh, so it should bloom in a few weeks. Surprised so many of you have columbines blooming already. Dogwoods just fully opened here, and the columbines usually bloom with the azaleas... (I suppose you all have azaleas blooming too, not me :)
vladpup
19 years ago
G'Day!

- Humming birds, stuffed from nectar feeders. Must check my cookbooks.

- Well, at elast i got the first dozen of my faux-gourd bird houses up! They are blindingly white, but if any get used this year, i will paint the rest a tint of green, so they are less of an eyesore. (Too bad the birds prefer such a bright white over subtler tones!)

- Happy gardening,
-vlad
jennamoondancer
19 years ago
I love hummingbirds but if they were any bigger (say the size of chickens) they'd be dangerous LOL! I've two who decided to nest on my deck in one of the birdhouses I place on the railings and they dive bomb me when I go out on the deck to sit. My hair is fairly long and the little male got tangled up in my hair the other day. Frightened the wits out of both of us! i take my morning cofee in the kitchen now since they seem to object to me on the deck so early. Kinda wierd but I'm being tolerant since I put the birdhouses up in the first place. If i didn't want birds nesting on my deck i should have put the houses elsewhere!
Jenna

Can't beat getting a springtime hummer!

Comments (15)

alfie_md6

JohnnieB

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