I did not see a hummer the last 2 days, so I thought this was it for me. Well, a hummer stopped to feed at 6:30 pm tonight, feeding for a full minute, then came back a few minutes later for a few seconds. She fed at my window feeder, and was plump. Her wings were fluttering the whole time she was feeding. Does this indicate she was in a hurry to travel on? I saw my last hummer last year on Oct. 19th. I must report that my husband and I are moving to another location in a couple of weeks. We will remain in Baton Rouge, and I am so concerned that I will not have hummers next year. I wish I could send my regulars a change of address!

Hi Remy, There are still plenty of native plants on the gulf. Even though a lot of plants were damaged during Katrina there were a lot of plants that weren't destroyed or had time to set seed and reseeded in the environment and are now blooming. Also there are still garden centers down there and the hummers do have access to the plants since they are all outside at this time of the year there. Also not all the people are gone and I am sure that there are some that have feeders up just not as many as what has been recorded in previous years. My best friend lives in Biloxi, Ms. and she is still there and she has a feeder out. Hummingbird migration coincides with the blooming out of particular plants such as Azalea, Rhododendron, Red Buckeye, Bottlebrush Buckeye, native columbine and flowering quince and currant. Red Currant is native to the northwest but it is one of their earliest blooming plants. I have 7 that have rooted out in the yard over the winter and are budding out now and the Red Buckeyes I just got from Ebay are budding out so I am keeping my fingers crossed for early returns. They also eat small insects for the protein they need and they will even get sap from sap wells in trees if they arrive in an area with limited flowering. So to answer your question, they do have food sources down on the gulf right now but maybe not the overabundance as in previous years. They may or may not linger as long as they normally do before moving northward. They will stay long enough to rest after their 500 mile journey and to put on some of the weight they lost during the long non stop flight but once they are refreshed they will start moving northward to establish territories and mate. However, the weather and the winds coming up from the gulf will also play a factor in their northward migration. If they get good breezes coming up from the gulf and the weather stays mild they could arrive a little earlier in the northeast. Penny

Hi Chicago folks! Gjbl, congratulations on your new arrival! My husband and I are renovating a house in Hyde Park and are closing in on the move-in date sometime in the next month or so. We went and looked at Kraftmaid and Thomasville at Home Depot but were underwhelmed at what they had to offer. I found Builder's Cabinet Supply and met with Chris Klein at their factory on Western and Hubbard shortly thereafter. From the first meeting I knew I wanted to go with them. When their bid for our L-shaped kitchen plus island, 6-foot-tall broom closet, pantry, and bookshelf came in $6,000 UNDER Home Depot, there was no question. The Home Depot brands couldn't even offer us a bookshelf at all, and we hated the paint options (we wanted a clean white with no glaze). We expect everything to be installed late this week, so I'll report back on how it goes. But we've been happy with how Chris has handled everything so far -- she's been a joy to work with. We're getting our soapstone countertops from Hummingbird Soapstone and Woodworks in Glen Ellyn -- if we'd found them first we might have gone with them for the cabinets, too. I don't know about their pricing, but their custom cabinets are gorgeous and amazingly well made. Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Woodworks

Usually my mowing in April is to get the yard cleaned up and the grass is beginning to grow. This past weekend was the second week I've mowed, and the grass really grew in that one week despite not receiving a lot of rain. I also started seeing butterflies in mid April, again earlier than usual. So I figure nature is moving along a couple weeks earlier this year. I only put out a few feeders to see if I attract any hummers, and will put out more when I see more birds.