DH took these pics last year..........
Hummingbirds!
And another........
Here's a closeup if the first pic......
DOH!!!
This was the same pic
How about this one......
Here's one sitting in a tree......
Another Hummer pic...........
Marilyn
edited to add.... this photo is the original pic of the one above which is 'cropped' and 'zoomed in'.
This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 6:47 PM
Here's another.....
Marilyn
WOW!! I cna never get hummer pics. I try but never am fast enough.
Great pics Marilyn!
Pepper, I always found, if I stood where ever the hummers were, stood like a soldier, camera poised and ready, I could get a shot. Sometimes wearing a red shirt makes come around you too!
Marilyn, wonderful pics. I just put up that same feeder. I hope I have the same good results.
Grampapa & Terry,
We only use sugar water ( no red food coloring ) and change our solution of sugar water every day.
I boil 1 cup of water ( measure ) and when it boils on the stove, I add a 1/4 dry measure of pure cane sugar (which I have measured), then stir it in till it dissolves and take it off the hot burner and let it cool. We use the cooled mixture and split it into 2 feeders.
I also have a lot of flowers that are attractive to Hummers .
Marilyn
This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 6:49 PM
This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 6:50 PM
Thanks, Marilyn. I have a lot of hummer-friendly flowers, too. We had hummers around last year, but I'm trying to entice them closer to the house with a feeder so dh can enjoy them more. he is disabled and doesn't get outside much. I thought I'd put up some hanging planters with fuschia near the feeder, too. I used the same recipe, so I guess I'm on the right track. and no red dye.
Grampapa,
We have a two sided post that we hang the feeders on. We hang them at the edge of the patio so we can see the Hummers from the kitchen window and the patio.
Marilyn
Edited to add..... We added the perches on the feeder on the right side (like the one on the left) later in the season last year. Also, added 2 more feeders (like the feeder on the left side shown) in the front yard in front of the living room window later in the season last year. ;-))
This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 6:46 PM
Grampapa,
I also have 3-4 pots on the front porch of Fuschia "Gartenmeister" (also, seen it as Fuschia "Gartenmeister" Bonstedt). Its an upright Fuschia that attracts the Hummers. Our front porch gets the morning sun and its shady the rest the day. The porch has a overhang, shading it even more. We'll be sitting on the couch at see the Hummers come up to the pots of Fuschias to feed! It is so exciting!!!
In this photo (which was taken in spring), I pushed the pots back the the brick to make room for the plants I had bought, but I'll bring the pots out from the wall (to give room for the flowers for the Hummers) when I dump the old soil to add new soil and the plant (or plants).
Marilyn
I don't use red food coloring either Marilyn. I meant to wear a red shirt while outside and that might bring them to you. It worked for me. My feeders are bigger. I boil 2 cups water in the micro and add 1/2 cup sugar. We've only been in this house for a year, so my native plants need to grow up before the hummers find them. They were all over my penstemon calycosus last year. But a lot my plants were put in, in the fall.
Hi Terry.
I usually wear a red hat when I'm outside and that has attracted the Hummers. :-)) Even if I'm standing with the patio door opened, the Hummers come and hover!
Marilyn
Hmmm, I'm taking notes....(put red hat on list). I need a new gardening hat anyway LOL. Good idea.
I wish I had a pic....we've moved and I can't find photos and my last computer crashed with all my old house pics. Anyway, a previous house was a ranch house, stained redwood. I didn't want redwood, I wanted natural redwood, which is more of a brown color, but the builder brought redwood, so we stained it red. Garage door was painted in a browny red color. Our roof was a reddish color with flecks of brown. It was a hummer magnet and I loved it.
We have a gold colored house with a red roof. The red roof will be gone next month because it is original and falling apart. We are replacing it with black/gray. HO HUM. LOL
Marilynbeth - Thank you so much for advising everyone not to use red food coloring! And your recipe is the exact one that people who are hummer experts advise! I have read that it is suspected that the red color and too high of a sugar concentration can cause liver damage in hummers. Last year I had someone tell me they put RED JELLO in their feeder. I was horrified! Tried to set them straight, but I think it fell on deaf ears.
Happy Humming!
This message was edited Jun 22, 2006 5:19 PM
I've actually heard of people using artificial sweeteners to make hummer food. Why not just fill it up with strychnine? That stuff reverts to its basic ingredient -- formaldehyde -- when it heats up. Neither good for man nor beast.
And I don't mean to be preachy, but I did read about a study where they watered identical sets of plants with tap water and with water that had been microwaved and cooled, and the nuked water recipients died. It may have been a hoax of some sort, but I use my microwave as a cabinet now.
I'd say it was a hoax.
Lily I think that is a great experiment, I have given up my microwave also. Now which one of my houseplants to subject..........thinking it will be a spider since I have so many due to them being so easy to propagate.
I read on a different forum ill affects from "nuking" & one of my mothers "alternative" health providers is very anti-nuke, some of the things these "alternative" health care people have said over the years (remeber the butter vs. margerine) I'ld scoff at,then years later find out......technology is not what it is cracked up to be, give me tried and true any day.
Is it really worth it (nuking) even if there is the slightest truth to it? I mean a hummingbirds metapolism is not on the same level as a houseplant.
This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 4:25 PM
It is a hoax, at least according to Snopes.com (this is a great website for separating the truth from the hoaxes in all those emails we get).
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp
we have been using our microwave for hummingbird nectar for years now-- never had a problem.
Has anybody in the southern states had any hummingbird visitors?? I'm anxious for them to arrive...lol...
We haven't filled our feeder up yet but as soon as we do they will be dive bombing all around us.
Post as soon as you see them!
I will and if we can get the camera fixed I will get pics of them too. We hang the feeder in front of our big window in the living room. That way we can watch all the action.
You're a working girl now, go buy yourself a new camera! Seriously, you can buy one of the throw away cameras and Wally World will put the pictures on a CD. That's easy enough, eh?
We just bought the camera in Sept and paid a small fortune for it. Now the menus doesn't open, can't delete pics, can't turn off camera w/o taking a pic first, and a few other problems I can't think of. Still under warranty so gotta turn it in and get it fixed.
Don't you just love when that happens?? I bought a new camera and I forgot to buy the memory card. It has a built in memory, but only takes a dozen or so pictures. But it's brown and ugly out, nothing to take a picture of. My luck? I'll finally get some pictures and go to download them on here and it won't work. BTW, I bought a new camera because the dinosaur one died and the other one I can't find the software for it. I can't download any pictures on here now. I didn't like it anyway.......and it was given to me by somebody who couldn't figure the thing out either, so I'm not out a thing.......
I was sitting on the back porch yesterday and suddenly, there was a hummingbird, 5-6 feet away, just checking things out! I ran out and got a feeder and set it out this morning. I hadn't been watching 10 minutes and he (she?) was back! It's going to be a good summer.
I've been watching hummers for years and still can't get enough of them. I've found that down here the "scouts" come about the middle of March and the others come about the middle of April. Of course there are the ones that stay the entire year and regardless of what "some" say that they are diseased, old, infirm, etc. a lot of time they just like where they are and stay. I just can't buy the stories that people perpetuate about a lot of things about hummers in particular. There used to be a story that kept popping up that after a certain date you should take down your feeders so the hummers would continue south and that was poppycock from the word "GO". reading this thread and the garbage about microwave ovens and using water you have heated in it threatens hummers is pure garbage. BUT, the part about using artificial sweeteners in feeders is very true. Have you ever seen an obese hummer? Or one w/diabetes? geeeeeeeeeeez The sweet nectar they get from flowers is terribly sweet. The hummer society (don't know its -or their - name(s) says that most of a hummer's diet is mostly protein from tiny bugs such as gnats, etc. I don't know for sure since I'm not a hummer nor have I followed any around to see what they do or do not ingest. Have to take their research on faith. I color my sugar water red so they find it easily because my feeder that I can rely on is so old that the sun and clorax (from sterilizing and cleaning over the past 10-12 years) has turned the red parts very pale. They haven't dropped dead or become diseased that I am aware of because of the dye. Of course, I don't use something like beet juice as the dye, just certified food quality red dye. Why oh why do people have to make easy things so hard? Just enjoy and take ordinary precautions that the water doesn't become contaminated. Sterilize and clean your feeders periodically. I have mine out now where I can see it from my computer and multitask work and "play".
Ann
Last year, I had the highest number of hummers visit at one time on four feeders spread throughout my backyard. If I remember correctly, I counted 9 at one time. Course, I do remember getting dizzy trying to count without counting the same one twice. The males were getting dizzy defending more than one feeder. For my birthday last year, my DDL and DS gave me an unusual looking green colored feeder. No red on it anywhere and the hummers ignore it for three months. Thanks to a tip from a DGer, I tied red ribbons on it in early August. I then I noticed them finally using and defending it.
My first sighting to my feeders was this week on March 22 at 6:40p.m.
Happy Hummering. Deborah♥
I will be putting my hummer feeders out soon and I'm always excited to see that first hummer at my feeder. Often I will get orioles working to get the sugar water for themselves.
Cuckoo
Are you following me cuckoo? LOL. We will have ours up when we start seeing the hummers. They tend to come up to the window and demand the food. lol
pepper23 with our yucky weather this weekend I've enjoyed visiting lots of threads. I love those little hummingbirds and trying to keep them happy and content with my feeders. I try to keep my feeders clean and don't mind the orioles except when they spill the food around trying to eat.
Cuckoo
LOL. I think you are the only person from MO that I see on alot of the threads that I frequent. So I definitely have to pick on ya a little. lol
I've put my feeders out here - and have seen the levels go down, but no bird sightings - it could be evaporation OR really quick migrating birds in a hurry to get to Missouri (and north!) to have families. I also have a cestrum that blooms year round that would be tastier than sugar water. I don't use red food coloring in the feeders and they find them anyway in the southward/fall migration. Starting in late July and peaking in October they hang around the feeders here in droves to fatten up for their trip south. In southeast Texas, the best HB watching is in the fall. Have fun with them in Missouri and northwards! I'll continue to put feeders out for them so they can have strength to head up your way.