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#1 |
Salamander
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Iowa, USA
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This was our first year putting out a hummie feeder and the next day we had a male. Then in a matter of days a handful where chasing each other off males and females, so I put up a second feeder. They didn't seem picky at all, like some birds. Just feisty toward one another.
I ended up back down to one feeder because we've got nesting Barn Swallows on front of the house and want to minimize any reason to go into the front yard. The Swallows have done this every year, but our activity drives them away. So far so good, we think they are now laying eggs as they only sit on it for short periods. Well, Tuesday was our last day spotting any hummies. Should we just take down the feeder for the summer, putting it back up at migration or keep changing it out? I am not as familiar with these birds. Oh, here is a picture of one of the little dears. I was standing about four feet from the feeder at the time. They are bold little things. |
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#2 |
Salamander
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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I think instead of a feeder, plant natives that hummies like, like honeysuckle, cardinal flower, wild cloumbine. That will help them more then the feeder will.
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#3 |
WG Hospitality & UAOKA recipient
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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Great photo.
![]() I don't usually put out hummingbird feeders as I don't want to have to maintain them. I'd much prefer to have enough native flowers to provide nectar for them throughout the season...but I'm not there yet. (Although this year my columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, is really starting to make a sizable colony...now I've got to spread it to various spots to have several colonies.) Congratulations on the barn swallows...I'd love to have them here. Anyway, I'm sure someone who maintains sugar water feeders will share some advice with you.
__________________
"If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar." ~ Lorrie Otto ~ A Native Backyard Blog ~ |
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#4 |
Salamander
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Iowa, USA
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Thanks for the responses. Yes, I'd like to get to that point of having flowers for them, but all we've got at this time are the cardinal flowers which are not in bloom yet. Besides this and the columbine, what other flowers will hummies take to? Especially for early in the season. Our first hummingbird arrived on May 11.
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#5 |
Salamander
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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Spreading Jaccobs Ladder, Honeysuckle., Passionflower ( not sure If its native to MN)
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#6 | |
Great Horned Owl
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northeastern MA
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__________________
"Know thyself." Oracle at Delphi |
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#7 | |
WG Hospitality & UAOKA recipient
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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__________________
"If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar." ~ Lorrie Otto ~ A Native Backyard Blog ~ |
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#8 | |
WG Hospitality & UAOKA recipient
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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Oh, and aside from what I mentioned above, I think they go to blueberry flowers as well. So, think shrubs as well as wildflowers. I guess my mind is waking up...here is another suggestion for later in the year: touch-me-not/ jewelweed.
__________________
"If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar." ~ Lorrie Otto ~ A Native Backyard Blog ~ |
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#9 |
Salamander
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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Curtain ferns.............. hummingbirds use for their nests, Cinn fern comes to mind.
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#10 | |
Great Horned Owl
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northeastern MA
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It hasn't flowered yet this year, but I know that these hummingbirds that I'm finding numerous here, will glory in that favorite flower. Plus, I don't mind the jewelweed being so prolific, as it is only replacing the creeping charlie that I was waging war with. Dap, you are also correct about them nectaring at blueberry flowers. I've watched them go from flower to flower, and I imagine that, precise though they are with that beak of theirs, that they are also pollinating the flowers as they go.
__________________
"Know thyself." Oracle at Delphi |
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Tags |
bird, bird feeder, birds, clethra, disappearing, feeder, honeysuckle, hummers, hummies, hummingbird, hummingbirds, liatris, monarda, native plants, plants |
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