The Hummingbird Haven

[WVduckchick]

I bet some of you may have seen this, but I had to share

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdBpfxd4/

 

[Blooie]

I bet some of you may have seen this, but I had to share

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdBpfxd4/

I hadn’t see that!! How cool!! Beats a hummingbird tongue up the nostril any day!! Thanks for posting this.

Wake up, Hummer Lovers…,it’s almost HummerTime!!

 

[Isadora]

Wake up, Hummer Lovers…

Is there such thing as a Hummer Hater? I feel like that's not possible!

 

[HomesteaderWife]

It is indeed almost time! Folks if you are on the Gulf Coast, start putting out a little tester "scout" feeder at the start of March. The Ruby-throated generally start hitting the Coast by the beginning of March. By Mid-March, we should expect them here in more middle and upper Alabama.

 

[Blooie]

I’m afraid this year may be a bust for me. We all know they return to familiar places. Year after year I’ve hung a red tablecloth on the clothesline in late March, along with a scout feeder. But this fall we built a new house on our lot, with a totally different configuration from the old single wide mobile home we did have. And I have no clothesline so I’m going to have to get creative. We have no lawn, no flowers…just bare dirt from all the construction surrounding the new house.

I did demand (and get) a decent front porch with amazing views of the Big Horn Mountains, but there’s no wood on it screw in a hook for my main feeder. Oh, there are rafters for the roof, but I hesitate to screw through the vinyl ceiling covering them. Looks like there will be a lot of shepherd’s hooks surrounding the porch if I want to hang plants and feeders.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

@Blooie - I bet you'd be surprised! Find yourself a double shepherd's hook stake, and on one side hang that cloth (if it's too big, I use a bandana, or you can use ribbon) and on the other hang the feeder. I bet if you put it out in a visible part of the yard, they will come! If you can find another double hook, find some potted flowers they may like? You can do it!

 

[589205]

Take good care of them and they will always remember you for doing so

 

[Blooie]

Oh, I’ll do it! Like I said, I’ll just have to get creative. The big issue is the layout. We had a skinny 10x60 mobile home. The short side ran north/south, the long side ran east/west. Now we have a 29x84 house. The layout is just the opposite. We have very little actual land left. I have ginormous trees and I can use the branches on them.

 

[Blooie]

Take good care of them and they will always remember you for doing so View attachment 3002082

I take such good care of them that my yard was certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official Wildlife Habitat, just because I have so many of them, and so many varieties.

But I’ve been doing this for so many years now that I also know they are a little like chickens…..they don’t like change. When we first built a deck on our old trailer house in 2005, it took a full season for them to come back. This new place - the layout, the lack of lawn, no flower beds - that’s gonna shock ‘em at first.

We went from this…….

…to this, all while they were off on their southern migration:

 

[589205]

I take such good care of them that my yard was certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official Wildlife Habitat, just because I have so many of them, and so many varieties.

But I’ve been doing this for so many years now that I also know they are a little like chickens…..they don’t like change. When we first built a deck on our old trailer house in 2005, it took a full season for them to come back. This new place - the layout, the lack of lawn, no flower beds - that’s gonna shock ‘em at first.

We went from this…….
View attachment 3002097

…to this, all while they were off on their southern migration:
View attachment 3002100

I’m sure they will still recognize you and the feeding stations. It might take a little while for them to get used to any changes but they’ll come back around once they realize.