impromptu hummingbird feeders

With its dazzling colors and mesmerizing flight, Hummingbird Moth has captured the attention of nature enthusiasts and scientists alike. So, let’s delve into the fascinating world of the hummingbird moth and discover what makes it so unique!

Does Firebush Attract Hummingbirds? – If you have this question in your mind, then this article will clear all your doubts!

The spring migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds from their tropical winter homes to South Carolina gardens is a highly anticipated event. These jeweled visitors usually arrive in mid-March; therefore, it is important to put up hummingbird feeders by around March 15. Nothing is more exciting than spotting the first arrivals.

We’ve set our clocks back an hour with the end of day-light-savings time. Thanksgiving is a recent memory, and the day length continues to shorten as the winter solstice (December 21st) approaches. Now that winter temperatures are setting in, activity in the landscape is slowing, to a minimal pace at times, for both gardeners and wildlife.

Like most South Carolina nature lovers, I look forward to the return of Ruby-throated hummingbirds every spring. I enjoy seeing them in my garden, visiting flower after flower chirping along the way. Salvias are one genus of flowers I have noticed they love to visit.

PROJECT FEEDER WATCH, at a mere $15 donation the cheapest ticket to an optimistic view on winter, kicked off its season this week. It’s what it sounds like: you watch your feeders (or in my case I watch my garden loaded with fruits and seed-bearing plants), and count who shows up two short periods each week.

Remember the BirdNote backstory from last week: In 2002, the then-executive director of Seattle Audubon heard a short public-radio show called StarDate. “We could do that with birds,” she thought. In 2005 the idea became a two-minute, seven-day-a-week public-radio “interstitial” (as short programs are called) that recently caught my ear.  I asked BirdNote to help me answer all the recent bird questions you had asked me. (In case you missed it last week, for installment Number 1, we tackled this subject: How do birds make themselves at home—even in winter?)Parts of Ellen’s answers below are in the 2-minute clips you can stream (all in the green links–or you can read the transcripts of each episode at those links if you prefer). Here we go:how do hummingbirds do it?Q. The miracle of hummingbird migration amazes all of us. How do they manage to migrate from the northern United States all the way to Mexico and beyon

Sigh.I have to say I was a little relieved to see that the Chicago-based blogger who calls himself Mr. Brown Thumb, Ramon Gonzalez, has been similarly frustrated (misery loves company and all that). And also pleased to see that Ramon’s and my common affection for the cypress vine was shared by Thomas Jefferson, who grew it at Monticello.Whichever of these hummingbird favorites you grow, treat them like other morning glories: For a headstart (especially in short-season Northern garden areas like mine) sow indoors and grow under lights, sowing 4-6 weeks before final frost. Soak the seed in warm water for a few

First off, Ellen wants to share—and dispel–a charming hummingbird myth: that hummingbirds hitchhike on the backs of larger birds during migration. “Not true,” she says, “but it’s an amusing image, isn’t it?” (Artist Jennifer Pope let us publish a depiction, below, of what such a collaboration might look like.) More on that tale and other hummingbird-migration myths in the BirdNote archive.)hummingbird migration: a q&a with birdnoteIN THE Q&A that follows, Ellen’s answers contain green links to audio files from BirdNote’s archive that you won’t want to miss. A recap of earlier stories in our series is at the bottom of the page, along with information on how to get BirdNote daily.Q. What’s goi

I jot down then record my daily winter “regulars list” of about 20 species maybe one per week or two, along with a dozen or so less consistent offseason visitors on the days they show up. The guest book looks something like this recently:garden visitors, average winter 2017 day:30 dark-eyed juncos 25 goldfinches 3 Northern cardinals (2 M, 1 F) 3 white-throated sparrows 3 house finches occasional American robins (from 3 to up to 30 on warm, bright days) 8 mourning doves (up to 20 on warm, bright days) 6 blue jays (ebbs and flows between several and 15ish birds) 4 tuf

WE ALL KNOW that living organisms adapt over generations to their environments, but this recent example made me smile: A bird species in the U.K. (the great tit, above) have developed longer beaks in recent decades, Oxford University reports, perhaps as a result of their attraction to bird feeders provided by humans. (Photo from Wikipedia by Shirley Clarke of Fordingbridge Camera Club.)ebird and ‘all about birds’ sites have new lookSPEAKING OF BIRDS: My go-to resource for information on them, All About Birds from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has had a redesign (look at the new species profile page for cedar waxwings, for instance). So has it

I was so glad I did.Even one small feeder (below right)—the deal I struck with myself—provided an informal census of who was around, which on the spring end of things hints at who’s nesting in the garden, and where. I watched where incoming birds arrived on the perches from, and where they headed back to after dining.Rose-breasted grosbeaks can usually be heard, and glimpsed, at the garden’s woodland