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!
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7 years ago
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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 MoreBest time of day to see/view hummers? :)
Comments (4)The hummies are up and about early out here. My bedroom window faces the back yard and I can hear them even before the sun comes up!!! I love listening to them!!! I also have feeders on the east side of the house (which gets lots of indirect sunlight but very little directly because the neighbor's house casts a morning shadow). Considering our temperatures are over 100 degrees most days the hummies tend to stay on that side of the house feeding. They zip back and forth from the backyard trees to all the feeders I have hanging from trellises on the east side and onto the front yard trees. I can find them perched on the trellises guarding their feeders most any time of the day...or perched out on a limb of one of the big oaks keeping tabs on their feeders. They also make a bee line straight across the street to the opposite neighbor's yard - there is a campsis radicans blooming that the hummies love to frequent. So pretty much I get hummie activity from pre-dawn to about 9 o'clock at night. As long as there's flowers and feeders they stick around. They also nest in the big oak trees in my yard. ~ Cat...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 MoreFebruary 2019, Week 2, Planting Time Is So Close....And, Yet, So Far
Comments (60)Kim, Prayers for fast healing for you. Bon, Where would we be without our beloved OK Mesonet? It has all the most helpful info in so many different formats. I just love it. I'm glad Bill made it home in time to chop wood. Hopefully that wood will keep the stove fed and keep you all toasty warm. Maybe you coulda/woulda/shoulda been chopping wood, but we know that it wouldn't feed your soul the way that gardening does, so we totally get it. Your wind chill was bad and it was bad so much earlier than ours. The cold front didn't make it this far south until tonight, but we're plenty chilly now. Megan, If you need some time to just chill, then allow yourself to do that. I think when our bodies are telling us what it needs, we need to listen. With a three day weekend, you should have adequate time for chilling and seed starting. Enjoy your holiday weekend. dbarron, Maybe the cat and dog were just playing and neither is too much of a fraidy cat? I'm glad you got the car into the garage so you won't have to chisel ice off the windshield later. The plants don't seem as bothered by the cold as we do. I guess that's because they are out in it 24/7 and are somewhat better adapted to it perhaps. Rebecca, I hope the procedure went well and that you and your mom made it home just fine. Y'all, the models look like somebody is going to get some snow next week, but I do not necessarily think it will hit many of us unless something changes. We have an unexpected, last-minute bonus weekend with the older granddaughter this week as her dad is unavailable for his weekend with her. Well, his loss is our gain and we're going to enjoy having her here with us, though she might climb the walls a little bit without her little sis around to play with. Of course, we can do things we don't do when little sis is here, like maybe go to a more mature movie (something not G-rated) or to a restaurant that little sis doesn't like. Tomorrow will be just her day and she's already voiced her opinion on where we should eat lunch. : ) Before they called to see if she could come stay with us, I had thought I might do a little plant shopping or something tomorrow but I think instead we'll do something she'll enjoy. It still is pretty chilly to be buying plants, especially since the cold weather doesn't want to go away. I'm ready to do some gardening, but the weather isn't really right for it yet, especially with the persistently soggy soil. Dawn...See More
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 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.
- 7 years ago
susanzone5 (NY)