Half A Year Is Not Enough

By Bernice Maddux

Spring arrives on hummingbird wings;

Of this I have no doubt,

When they arrive, I know it’s time

To put sweet nectar out.

I realize they’ve traveled far

To spend six months with me.

So I will do my very best

To make their visit worry-free.

I’ll cultivate sweet blossoms,

Filling beds and pots with red.

They will supervise the job

As they buzz high above my head.

They ask so little, give so much,

Adding sweetness to my days.

Half a year is not enough

To behold all their winning ways.

I have been attempting since I bought this home five years ago.  I have documented 36 different varieties of birds, including “fly bys”, feeding just black oil sunflower seeds, niger, suet, and providing water.  I also grow plants that encourage the birds, butterflies, and bees

I have hung bird houses made of straw, grass, recycled material,

Flower Top Bird House

functional wood designs, and even ornamental.

Starlings chose to raise a family in the eave which was protected by a fairly large evergreen.  They never returned.

A sparrow had a nest in the laurel hedge which I discovered when I trimmed the hedge, exposing the nest with two babies, which the Ferrell cat found soon after.  I felt so bad!

A pair of house finches started a nest in ornamental bird house by my back door, laid two eggs, and then abandoned the nest.

Mini Wren Bird House

A second pair of house finches started to build a nest in a house I had hung from a tree branch but again they abandoned the process.

I am learning the reasons for my failures and would welcome any ones input!

1. My yard is small and I am outside a lot on my days off.  They start a nest while I am at work, stay with the process a couple of weeks, and then determine my presence is too disruptive.
2. There are natural settings of trees and shrubs in the deep gully and swamp in my back yard, so there are safer more distant settings available.  Now I have moved my bird houses into those tees and let’s see what happens this year and next spring!
3. Because I have such a wide variety of birds coming to my feeders, my small yard is far too busy for birds to attempt to raise a family.  Nesting birds need space!  They do not want to fight off other birds from their nest.
4. If I have a nesting family in my yard, I have to stop feeding the other birds until the fledglings are on their own.  Since only 80% of baby birds survive, it is well worth supporting the nesters!
5. I keep my two cats indoors, but my neighbor allows his cat out and is happy when it has killed a bird!  My pleadings have not changed his attitude or actions.  There are some other Ferrell cats in my neighborhood, which seem to be diminishing in number.

Western Columbine

Columbines (Aguilegia spp) are a great plant to grow for their intricately shaped flowers, good color ranges, frilly fern like leaves, and some have a long bloom period.  They are perennial and will reseed easily.  Columbines rely on hummingbirds to pollinate them so there is a good symbiotic relationship.

The nectar is secreted in the long tube of the flower and collects in a bulge at the base, making it the ideal source for humming birds.  Plant them en masse for extra effect along walk ways and patios.

You can find them in seed catalogs and as plants at high quality nurseries in the early spring.  I like to get starts and seeds from friends.

There are seed catalogs that focus on native plants which contribute to their hardiness and accessibility by hummers.   Four to experiment with are:

1. Aquilegia Canadensis, Canada or wild red columbine.  Native from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Ontario and
   

   Canada Columbine

   Quebec south through much of the eastern United States.  The flowers are red and lemon yellow in midspring to midsummer.  Plants grow two feet tall and one foot wide.  Wild red columbine is also a larval food plant for the columbine dusky wing butterfly.

2. 

   Rocky Mtn Cloumbine

   Aquilegia carulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. Erect blooms are bicolor in lovely shades of blue and white.  Plants grow 1 to 2 feet tall and bloom from June to August.  This is the state flower for Colorado and includes the mountains of southwestern Montana and central Idaho to northern New Mexico and Arizona.

3. Aguilegia chrysantha or golden or yellow columbine. The horizontal-facing canary
   

   Yellow Columbine

   yellow flowers look like little rockets.   They have a long bloom from April to September making them especially appealing.  Plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall with a nearly equal spread.  They grow in mountain canyon seeps in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert regions, and are found from west Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Utah, and Arizona and Mexico.

4. 

   Western Columbine

   4. Aquilegia Formosa, western columbine.  Formosa means beautiful.  It reaches 1 ½ feet tall and bears dangling yellow and red blooms in late spring through early summer.  The spurs are only about ½ to ¾ inch long and point upright, making them ideal for hungry hummers.  They are found in meadows and damp areas of western mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.

5. Aquilegia longissima, Long Spur Columbine, relies on the sphinx moths with their
   

   Long Spur Columbine

   extra long proboscises to effect pollination; hummer tongues are too short for them to successfully feed on this plant.  This species has particularly large flowers with spurs that are 4 to 6 inches long which makes them inaccessible to hummers.   They are native from west Texas to southern Arizona and northeastern Mexico.

Bluebird with mealworms

Most years Bluebirds start to nest during late January and February in many area of the United States.  The winter weather this year in much of the country has been too cold and food sources too short to all the females Bluebirds to get into body condition to reproduce. If there has ever been a year to help the Bluebirds with supplement feeding, this is it!  One of the favorite things that Bluebirds

Mealworms Value Tub

love to eat is mealworms. Dried mealworms are a great convenient way to feed them to your feathered friends. They can be purchased in small packages or in a value tub, which is a good buy.

Hiatt Jelly & Mealworm Stake Feeders are a good way to feed Bluebirds the worms. You can move them around your lawn or garden so you can view the birds. Should you get eaten out of house and home, try the Songbird Essentials Recycled Plastic Mealworm Feeder. This feeder keeps out unwanted birds while offering a safe exit for excited Bluebirds.

Meal Worm Feeder