Hummer time... in February!
Most places in the U.S. have to wait through long, dreary, gray winters before these little jewels show up, but lucky for us in Arizona, we get them year round. Most species are migratory however and you have to wait until spring to see the whole gamut of species the travel through and to the southwest. Lucky for us though, spring comes much earlier than more northerly latitudes ;).
Anna's are the ones I get at the feeders at home.
Costa's one of my favorites with their insanely purple gorgets.
Broad Billed are somewhat unique in that their whole bodies are iridescent. These guys are starting to head north into Arizona now, but this photo was taken at the hummingbird apiary at the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson.
Rivoli's (formerly "magnificent") are huge, by hummer standards. The second largest in the U.S., after the blue throated hummingbird in fact. Too bad this guy was unwilling to show off his remarkable colors for me though.
Not a rare hummingbird...for California. But this little Allen's that showed up at the Sonoran Desert Museum has caused quite a stir amongst birders here in Southern Arizona!
Comments (9)
8 years ago
8 years agoRelated Discussions
I think I am ready for some Butterflies, bees and Hummers!
Comments (9)Thank you leafhead, now you are just exhausting me! :-) I am out of room for any thing larger than Marigolds, snapdragons and yes, asters. I cannot decide which asters to get. They recommend Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black' and Aster novi belgii Alert (red), for my area. I did find a great plant list just for the Texas High Plains, so I think I will try their local varieties. They also sell plants, however it is a long drive, but they do have native milkweed, several varieties, I would like to try. Next year I will have time to put in more garden space, as I do away with more lawn, but for now I am full-up! I think I will learn alot this summer, and by next spring I should know more about what is good for me as far as natives, and if I see butterflies I did not expect, I will plant what I can to meet their needs. I am very excited about my first season. I don't think I have a chance of seeing either a Giant or a Tiger Swallowtail. The sulfurs we get are happy with grasses, so I have that covered. I do need Violets! The list never ends.... Thanks again, Debra...See Moreplants for Hummers Zone 4 hardy, new to hummer gardens
Comments (8)I also just moved into a new house and am starting from scratch on my garden. I was also intereted in a hummingbird garden. I think everything I'm naming is hardy to zone 4. This is what I've planted so far: *Catawbiense Rhododdendron 'Bourseault' (closest I could find to the species plant, I got mine at Home Depot) *Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine *Campsis radicans Trumpet Creeper *Lonicera sempervirens Coral Honeysuckle *Aesculus pavia Red Buckeye (It is hardy to zone 4 even though the linked website says 6) *Spigelia marilandica Indian Pink *Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal Flower *Monarda didyma Oswega Tea *Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline' Lilium michiganense Turk's Cap Lily (more known is *L. canadense) Liatris pycnostachya Prairie Blazing Star Silene virginica Fiery Campion Dicentra eximia Wild Bleeding Heart Astilbe 'Larissa' Crocosmia Montbretia 'Fire King' Phlox paniculata 'Tenor' Tricyrtis hirta Toad Lily Among others (I don't want to exhaust you!) The ones with stars are recommended as the top 10 hummingbird plants. The only one I don't have is spotted jewelweed, only because I think it is weedy looking. I see it growing naturally around here. The others are things I liked and read in various websites, catalogs or forums that people found to attract hummingbirds. I try to select species plants because they are thought to have more nectar than hybrids. Although the hybrids I planted, I planted because they are much easier to find! This website along with the link I entered, I found quite helpful. Copy and paste http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html I started a journal on daves garden. If you interested in looking at it let me know. Here is a link that might be useful: Top Ten...See MoreDaily Support, Monday, February 9 to Sunday, February 15
Comments (24)Good day, everyone. Especially you, Jan!((((hugs)))) Ladies, after I wrote the post about our friend Larry getting into MDACC, a friend of mine from BL called to invite me to join the Crosby Meltdown here in town. If you join, you're entitled to go to Curves free until the end of March, so I jumped at the chance to try out the place. We went this morning, I had my trial run-through and really enjoyed myself. The owner of the franchise told me that I could officially start tomorrow through the end of the Meltdown, then switch to a regular membership without the enrollment fees!!! I felt like my old self this whole morning, and I'm still pumped up from the workout! Jan, sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. Life doles it out randomly to all of us, and fortunately at different times, so we're here for you when you need us, and I doubt that I'm not alone in NEVER rolling my eyes about your posts. You need shoulders; we have them! Marci, you'll definitely deserve a night out with your hubby after Valentine parties for little ones. Halloween and Valentine parties were always the "hyper days" in my preschool classroom. MD Anderson is way far away in downtown Houston, and I'm a chicken about driving there, but I hope to get home early enough on Sunday for hubby and me to go see him if we're nice and healthy. I usually drop off a card and/or a little gifty at their home a couple of times a week instead. Larry has just caught so many things besides all the internal problems he's had with blood clots and renal failure that I haven't wanted to expose him to anything. Where is everyone lately? I know that Donna isn't feeling well and that Gretchen is busy, but where is Suzanne, BJ, Peggy, and Maddie? Check in, ladies! Got to get busy making my "Hugs" cards to accompany the "hugs" bags for my friends tomorrow and my Valentine cards for my son and his family to take on Saturday. Wishing everyone a wonderful day! Here is a link that might be useful: Crosby Meltdown...See MoreRare hummer sighted (article) & question about winter nectar plants
Comments (8)I have a winter hummer visiting my garden in Augusta, GA. It has been hanging around since November. Up until this week I had salvia coccinea and salvia involucrata, "Ugly Shrimp Plant", and Flowering Maple (Abultilon pictum) . Yesterday am the low of 25 completely killed both salvias but parts of the shrimp plant with flowers are still ok and the Abutilon was untouched. You might try any or all of those plants. The shrimp plant was a pass-along from hummingbird gardeners in south Louisiana so I don't know a specific name....See More
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
I started out taking wildlife (or any) photos with my parents little home digital camera. I would go out and get pictures of waterfowl at the local park with it. They are large, tame, and common and therefore easy targets:
They also live in water and one fateful day the little pocket camera got left in my pocket when I decided to get a little too familiar with the habitat. I didn't pick up another camera for several years afterwards. They were expensive and I kind of moved on to other things.
Then when I was stationed in Hawaii I went to the PX (which is the military version of a Wal-Mart) and bought a Canon PowerShot, which is a high end point and shoot. First off it was more technologically advanced than the first edition 4 megapixel digital camera my parents had for taking snapshots at Christmas and vacations and it had features that allowed more user control like manual mode where I could set aperture and shutter speed:
This was my main camera for a couple years until I left it in my brothers car which got towed and the impound lot stole it.
At the same time I had the PowerShot is when I bought the full DSLR Eos Rebel that I use now. But I was so used to the PowerShot I never really used the Rebel until after the other one was stolen. I got away from nature/wildlife photography while I was in Hawaii (which I now kick myself for). But not long after moving back to Colorado I went on Amazon and got a 150$ 75-200mm zoom lense that was all I used for years and I have some actually not horrible shots from it:
I am still 100% an amateur myself. But I will say that learning to overcome the limitations of your equipment rather than going out and dumping your life savings on the biggest and best right out of the chute probably makes for better photographs. So does learning the fundementals of what makes good pictures. Things like composition and lighting. A big fancy lense or the newest top of the line camera can't compensate for those things no matter how expensive they are. The one thing I have always believed is that the most important thing is the person behind the camera rather than the camera itself.
These lessons are probably true for just about anything we do in life.
- 8 years ago
susanzone5 (NY)