Let's talk about the Hummingbird's and their Migration!

Hi ilflowers! Welcome to the forum here. We will be waiting to see photos for sure. Once they start arriving we will have a thread just for hummmer photos! This a great forum with lots of great people to share with and learn from.

Hi ilflowers, Welcome to DG. A bunch of us are not so patiently waiting to see our first hummer this year either. Have fun with your new garden. What plants are you planning to add?

Welcome ilflowers! I'm sure you will love DG!!

Thanks for the nice welcome! I'm pulling out all the stops, starting with an arbor of Major Wheeler Honeysuckle. I have one vine on my feeder hook from last year that was much used. Also I am adding salvia, penstemon, agastache (new for me), columbine, Keys of Heaven, russian sage, and several other perennials including a milkweed assortment for my monarch friends. They are my second favorite winged garden visitor.

Welcome to the forum ilflowers!!!

Sounds like you have a great setup! I have Alabama Crimson Honeysuckle and they really enjoy it. I would love to get the Major Wheeler too.

All the way up to north New Jersey now!!!!!

This year it seems to be the lavendar that is attracting the hummers out my window. I have all kinds of things blooming for them, but Ive only seen them at the feeder for nectar or in the lavendar so far.

YAY!!! Have a couple in Indiana now. I am going to WBU to get my new pole and stuff for my new Oriole feeding station. Yippeeee!

Still no action here (just outside Cincinnati), have two feeders up, including a new Oriole/hummer feeder. It's been hot and still here, perfect weather for the hummers according to Pelletory's weather info (thanks for that!). *--

So happy for all of you that have them back!!! My feeders are cleaned and ready to go. I won't bother with the sugar water until sometime next week as I usually don't see any until the 2nd or 3rd week of April. I love it when the hummers show up....it is such an important marker that Spring is really here!

Hello everyone,
I am new to this thread & I am also trying to attract hummingbirds this year as last year as I was planting to attract butterflies I also attracted one pait of black chinned hummers.. the first ever for our area.. they were the only ones too.
They loved my tropical milkweed as well as the cosmos & zinnia I had grown. This year it's going to be mostly tropical milkweed & then zinnias.
I am putting up my feeder this weekend & I only hope I am not too late..yet successful at the same time.
Thank you for having this thread... look forward to keeping updated.

Hi Cindy & welcome!! Hope your Black Chinned hummers come back fro you!

My regulars don't usually show up until the 3rd week or so either. Last year I saw my first on 4-26. Them and the orioles get here about the same time. But I put out one feeder for any scouts or any other travelers passing by.

Hi Cindy, Welcome to the forum!!!

Have you tried having any Agastache or Salvia? Mine love those along with Monarda (Bee Balm, which might not be zone friendly for you) and Honeysuckle vine with the tubular flowers.

Keep us posted on the progress!

Welcome, Cindy!! I've never seen a black-chinned. Hope that they come back to your yard....it's always a treat to have something different in the garden!

thank you all for the lovely warm welcome..
Pelletory, I do have salvia.. funny though.. I planted it 5 years ago & it's kept coming up ever since... some even come up in a peachy color! hahaha.. I am hoping they will come up again, as they can be invasive & I let them take over one end of my garden last year!
Bee Balm is supposed to be ok here.. I am hoping to get a bush this year... if I can find the room.. even going to container planting I might have to find space! hahaha.

I've just bought an Angel Trumpet plant, which I am pretty sure will attract hummers!!

When we first had bee balm, I watched the hummers fly right past it to the hosta. they obviously never read the book on feeding.

The ones I have are Jacob Cline (or Kline).

I had to have a number of my hummingbird plants caged due to rabbits eating them, monarda, cardinal flower.

Hi everyone and welcome if you've just found this wonderful thread.

I cut up oranges today in anticipation of attracting Baltimore Orioles. Still no sign of Hummers. My sugar water's been out 2 weeks, probably wouldn't be a bad idea to change it. The bees sure have been loving it.

Fruitofthevine.. we need to keep the bees too!! I am also going to be attracting them since bees are on the endangered list.. Monarch butterflies are also on the endangered list. I just recently found out..& with Mexico having so much rain it really killed them..since that's where they winter.

I just saw a sighting post on the HB map for CT.....I had better get my feeders out after all!

We sure do, Cindy. Our cherry tree is just about in full bloom. I walked under it this morning checking to see which Hostas were peeking out and the sound of so many bees buzzing at once reminded me of a far-away train. Good luck attracting our endangered friends.
Susan

OMG CT !!! Thats incredible!

Here is a site with the Top 10 Hummingbird Plants (native)

http://www.rubythroat.org/PlantsNativeTopTen.html

Here are some exotics.

http://www.rubythroat.org/PlantsExoticTopTen.html

This message was edited Apr 2, 2010 5:49 PM

Bee Balm does well in my area and the bees and the hummers love it!

I started it from seed 2 years ago, I'm going to try lavender again this year, in the past I didn't have much luck growing it.

I still have at least 2 weeks or so depending on the weather before their arrival here. Next week I have to go find the HumZinger feeder.

I have started seeing a male and a female everyday now. They look like they need to gain some weight. Here is the female.

f_chisolm, what a great shot. By the way, the Cowbirds you sent North a couple of weeks ago arrived today. Forgive me if I don't thank you for them.

Last year I rec'd a start of Magenta Bee Balm, mcash, I wonder if we have the same plant? I Winter sowed Lemon Bee Balm seeds and have a few sprouts.

Welcome, Cindy!! Congrats to those who have seen one allready! Thanks for posting the enjoyable photo f_chisolm
! Lucky you! :) ... I don't usually see any here untill the columbines are bloomimg, But, They have buds, So I'm hopefull to start seeing a scout! Had my feeders up for about 5 days now. I do however have Bluebirds nesting allready .. 2 eggs so far!

Sweet pics Margaret and Frank! I love the purple Monarda Margaret.

Congrats on the Bluebird eggs Iris, keep us posted! Should be very soon for the hummers.

Cash, you'll love your hummzinger, so easy to clean. I got my Mom hooked on hummers with an inferior feeder, then it was all moldy and impossible to clean. Had my eye out all winter, just found the hummzinger (or hummzinger-esque) feeders for

Why oh why can't Lowe's or Home Depot carry a decent hummingbird feeder?

Don't they carry a saucer feeder? I thought I bought one there years ago.

I have had many a feeder. I hat to admit it. I go back to the plain old cheap ones with the the red flowers. Its easy to clean, the hummers like it and it has little perches that they do sit on. I looked for the saucer variety myself this year and couldnt find one. It has all the same adributes.

I bought my first saucer feeder at a small bird shop in town this year. She has a nice selection, if not a little pricey. It may even be a HummZinger, but I threw out my tag before I knew those were the cool ones. I also use my $4 Wally World one and it's really easy to clean. It comes all the way apart and has a wide mouth nectar container. I only buy the kind with perches so the hummers can rest a bit. Plus that's when the dive bombing begins, when one hummer sits too long another gives it the signal it's time to go! I had to buy and plant some columbine from the local nurseries this weekend since it was blooming. I couldn't help it. I see one report from Illinois though, so come on little ones!

I use the cheap ';easy to clean' ones too, Hummingbirds always seem to like them, So, It's good enough for me.
2 more Bluebird eggs today!
Last years HB photo, Early Evening...

Very nice pic Iris!!

Thanks pelletory!

My favorite feeders are the cheap ones too that have a wide-mouth and multiple perches...so easy to clean and fill. I think I paid $5 apiece for them at a big box store 3 years ago and they still look brand new. I have a couple of froo-froo hand blown glass feeders that are a pain in the patooty to clean (never had a toothbrush that small to do the trick) and even after changing the stoppers to better fit the neck, they always leak.

If I can't attract them with sugar water, maybe I can with Columbines.....several of mine are loaded with buds.

After many years of service my feeders need replacing, I did buy one fancy feeder half price last year, it is still a virgin but hope fully not for too much longer;o), and I plan on buying the HummZinger. I found one of the best tools to clean the ports is an old mascara brush. If after a while they started to leak I wrapped a thin strip of plastic wrap around the neck of the bottle and then just screwed the feeding station on.

The new fancy feeder;-)

Ah yes mcash, the mascara type brushes are sold at the little bird shop nearby. I'm sure they are the cleaning tool of choice. I also bought nectar guard tips to keep out bees and wasps. We'll see if they are helpful or gimmicky soon. Seems like they would work, but still skeptical.

Chisolm....sweet pic of the female...you really captured her expression!

I have used so many different feeders and finally found this one on the internet (DrJbs). It is a dream to clean and the top is flat so it is easy to fill. I love it and so do the hummers! No visitors yet but they should be here soon!

So that's what you do with old mascara brushes! Great excuse to go buy some new makeup, too.
Iris, amazing picture.