Reminder: Put a hummingbird feeder out, now! :0)
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I'm in Colorado. The migrating hummingbirds have started arriving. We put one feeder out 3 days ago when we had our first sighting. They're tired and hungry!
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OT~ Clean them Hummingbird Feeders!
Comments (18)tiffy, thanks! That is an excellent link, and I had no idea they need to be changed so often so I will monitor it for those telltale signs at your link. I noticed with mine that the design is such I doubt they will be able to get at much of it so it so it will go to waste. But it was pretty, and I had to have it. Also it's going to be a little harder to clean, but I'll manage ok with it if I don't break one of the glass parts. And a magnet for a thief, so I put it in the back yard. With the clear, it won't be so noticeable. But I may have to use the red ribbon trick because it's not really very red but pink. I would think refined sugar wouldn't give them the nutrition they need and intuit that possibly nectar gathered from flowers is healthier for them. If they have a choice, what do they choose? I'll go ahead with your recipe because it is cheap, easy enough, and . . .clear. Mine is BR12230 at the link. My daughter was shocked I'd pay that for a feeder. I am, too! I cut corners on some things then splurge on others. But I wanted something different if I manage to get some good photos, and I don't care for the plastic ones too much. I did get a finch feeder that is like melamine, looks like a birch log. It looks really nice near my birch tree. The lower branches are gone, and I didn't want to pound anything in that because it is getting old and a cord, well, that would work but didn't want to go that route. I know from last year that hummers are around, but I never see any goldfinches. I so hope to attract some and to be able to watch them at the feeder. Here is a link that might be useful: Blown glass hummingbird feeders...See MoreHand made Hummingbird Feeders--Pictures from Photobucket
Comments (17)Thanks, guys. Those glass flowers are amazing! I wish the pictures could be enlarged to see the detail. I have this vague memory that I might have seen the real ones many, many years ago when I visited Boston. They truly are exquisite works of craftmanship, and glass is such a classy material compared with Sculpey clay. It has a translucency that's hard to get with polymer clay. If I make the Sculpey clay really thin, though, the light passes through and makes the petals glow in the sunshine. I'm always striving to get this effect, but it's hard to do. When clay is pressed this thin, it tends to slump either in the forming or in the baking stage. It is definitely a labor of love, but then so is gardening for hummingbirds and feeding them. It is such a thrill to make a feeder and watch them head right for it, take a sip, and zip off, disappearing to parts unknown. Some of my flowers are quite a bit larger than life, and I sometimes chuckle to myself and wonder what those little hummingbirds are thinking when they see a Salvia coccinea that is 3x bigger than it ought to be. "Ay caramba! That's the biggest salvia I ever saw!" I've had my share of failures, but have gotten better and better at making them hummer friendly. Although I try to make them works of art, they remain, first and foremost, functioning hummingbird feeders. Here's a couple more: A NOTE TO CS7580 (Otherwise known as Connie, I think)--If you're seeing this, I just wanted you to know that I tried to send you an email by going through your member page, but I think it didn't go through. I know you were interested in trying to make your own Sculpey clay feeders, and I remembered some instructional things I hadn't mentioned in my original post that might help you with your efforts. If you're interested, maybe you can send me an email by using my member page. Hopefully, it will work for you. Once I have your email, I can get those extra instructions to you. They are very important, and I think you'll have trouble being successful without them....See MoreNo hummingbirds coming to feeders
Comments (6)Supposedly they are very territorial. When they first migrate, they will feed from any feeder that they can find. However once they establish their territories, the males will become very aggressive during mating season and will chase away the others. I used to have over half a dozen at the same feeder about 2 months ago, and then they started fighting more and more often with each other, eventually resulting in lesser numbers. Now I consider myself lucky if I see one or two a day but when they do arrive, they barely stay for more than a couple of seconds and immediately take off whereas I had some of them literally nest on the thing and spend almost the whole day perched on the wire above the feeder. Now, one of them actually comes to the window almost each time, stares at me for a couple of seconds and then takes off on a hurry. In June, I would stand outside refilling the feeders and have them stay 2-3 feet away from me for minutes, not bothered by me or anything else. I also have a regular bird feeder about 4 feet away from the hummer feeder, and recently I have had about a dozen Blue Jays claim that feeder as their own. They are extremely loud birds (crows, magpies and jays are all in the same family), and they may also be scaring the others away when they show up intermittently throughout the day, accompanied with real loud noise. It is almost time for the hummers to migrate, so I won't bother changing anything this year but next year, I will add more hummer feeders and a large feeder for the Jays about 50 feet away from the other two, further away into the yard....See Morestill putting feeders out?
Comments (3)You are in an area of Florida that could have hummers all winter. I live in Lakeland and it is strange but there are areas in town and north of Lakeland that have more hummers in the summer than in the winter. On the south side of Lakeland we have more wintering hummers than summer ones. We all get the migratory ones that come through till April and then we start seeing them in early Sept. and then on until the winter ones stay. I have a friend in Clermont who sees them more in the summer and others who visit www.floridahummingbirds.net that report having them at different times of the year. So my words of advice is to keep the feeders up. With the weather we have been having it is hard to tell who or what will show up when. Good luck....See More
10 years agolast modified: 10 years agorhizo.....a broadtailed, juvenile male. Here he is holding still...
Winter Range Winters throughout the highlands of mainland Mexico, south to Guatemala. - See more at: http://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/broad-tailed-hummingbird.html#sthash.vYiLYymp.dpuf
- 10 years ago
In Colorado we usually get our heaviest snows in late April. At least they'll have food while they wait it out.
Caliope, the littlest variety we feed.
The Rufous arrive here around July 3.
User thanked kathyg_in_mi
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