I just had my first hummer of the year. I get them pretty rarely, so this is quite exciting for me. Some people get them all the time. Other people hardly ever get hummers. I am one of the latter…I only had one all last year, and my life was somehow the worse for it.
Many of the people who get hummers all the time just don’t know what a good thing they have going. My brother, for instance, apparently gets hummers quite often but to him this is unremarkable. I just think he is a lucky bastard.
Then there is my wife. If there wasn’t another hummer at our house for the rest of the year, she would be just fine with it. Hummers are nothing special to her. I think she could take them or leave them.
Not I. It was very special, so special in fact that I will note the date on the calendar, and tell all my friends and family about our hummer. I hope I get many more hummers this summer.
Yes, it is always a very exciting time when I see the first ruby-throated hummingbird of the year in our yard.
I love seeing them. When I lived in Lalaland, I had a birds of paradise plant right outside my living room that had hummingbirds feeding from it for 8-10 months out of the year. I never ceased to be amazed at how special they are.
And slightly more on topic - I once had a hummingbird consider feeding off of me! It hovered about a foot away from a colorful part of my shirt… seemed to be trying to figure out if I was edible.
Yes, I have a feeder and this bird was near it, although I didn’t see it use it. This was where I saw the one last year too. I had an impatiens hanging out there last year, but I haven’t put one out there yet this year. I have another hummingbird-attracting red plant whose name escapes me hanging in a different part of the yard.
This year I also planted lupine, and got trumpet creeper seeds to germinate because I couldn’t find the plants themselves for sale near me. I did just find a trumpet honeysuckle plant last week, so that is now in the yard, and the same place now does sell trumpet creeper so I might go back and buy that as well. I tried growing morning glory from seeds but I effed it up and most of them died. Most of these plants won’t be big enough this year to really contribute, I don’t think, and the trumpet creeper seedlings will probably not produce flowers at all this year, and maybe not next either from what I have read.
The circumstances of seeing this bird was kind of funny. I have a thistle feeder near the hummingbird feeder that recently started attracting lots of goldfinches, which I also love. Three goldfinches were hanging out near their feeder, when suddenly a couple of them startled and flew a few feet away. That’s when I saw the tiny hummer flitting around it’s feeder. The goldfinches summoned up their courage and flew back to their feeder, and the hummer flew off. Those goldfinches are small, but next to a hummingbird they look like condors!
I was going to join in thinking this was a perverse thread, stating that I just got one about 15 minutes ago, but since this isn’t that kind of thread, I am going to politely escort myself out.
Thank you very much for depressing me(indirectly). I have always loved hummingbirds.I live in Denver and I usually see a couple dozen at my house over the summer, and shitloads of them up camping in the Rockies(up to 10 at a time flittering over a couple beautiful green and flower covered meadows I know of) I heard a nature dude on TV saying that Colorado has 90 percent of the Hummingbird species in the world. Thie made sence with my experiences, so I have repeated it to many people as fact. However this thread made me decide to do some research and I found out the 90% number is totally wrong, and I have been spreading ignorance to lots of people.
Yes, before I read your post to the end I was thinking “that 90% number sounds high!”. I know there are many kinds of hummingbirds in South America that never make it to North America.
Just looking at the maps in The Sibley Guide to Birds only 6 of the 18 hummingbird species that are ever found in North America are seen in Colorado, and only 3 seem to breed there regularly: Black-chinned, Calliope, and Broad-tailed, with the Rufous Hummingbird being a regular through-migrant. Not sure where the 90% number came from.
Cheer up, though. Most of the Eastern U.S. only has ONE species (the ruby throat) that breeds here regularly. I have never seen more than one a time around here.
You are just going to have to track down every single person you told this too over the years, and give them the correct info!
Well, kinda. Here are some hummingbird pictures I took in Colorado last year. I’m no pro or anything, so they’re not great, but hey, they’re hummers, and they’re cute.
Was talking to my father on the phone last night, and was informed that he’s been getting lots of hummers recently. Seems my mother is quite excited about it, too. And to top it off, some of the hummers have been witnessed by my 3 year old niece!
Actually, those a quite good. Hummers are one of the toughest photographic subjects imaginable.
And, I’m jealous of Laughing Lagomorph. I know he doesn’t live too far away from me, but I’ve never had a hummer in my yard (in any sense). Or, a single goldfinch! Actually, I think I’ve only seen one goldfinch in my whole life.
Up in the wildnerness of southern New Jersey, we have a couple that visit regularly: Dave and … shoot, what’s the other one’s name. Steve. Dave and Steve. Only Dave is pronounced “Dive,” as if the bird were Cockney, or something.
Well believe it or not, after ten years of birding I saw my first hummer last week. I was out doing a service call when I walked by a house that had a hummingbird feeder. I thought it was unlikely that a h-bird would be there, but all of a sudden one came swooping in, and ate at a flower basket on the deck. The bird totally ignored the filled hummingbird feeder. When I looked at it I realized that the owners had filled the hummingbird feeder with thistle seed…
Max Torque I am insanely jealous. I’m going to fly down to Lubbock and let all the air out of your tires. Also, your hummingbird pictures are the best I’ve seen on the net, bar none. Davebear, I may not get many hummingbirds but I’ve got the goldfinches down to a science. Go out and get yourself a thistle feeder and seed (its sometimes called niger or, heaven help us, nyjer for the politically correct). Part of the beauty of this type of seed is that most birds including such undersireables as sparrows and starlings don’t like it, and even better squirrels loathe it. They will all ignore your thisltle feeder, but goldfinches love it. I also seed chickadees and house finches there. YMMV, though, if you live in a truly urban environment…I’m not sure where exactly in Greater Boston you live. Odieman, I wonder if those people know something I don’t know, or were they even more clueless than I. That pretty much squares with my results, though…little luck getting the hummers to use the feeder, more luck getting them to come to actual plants, hence all my gardening this year. I am an even worse gardener than photographer, but I am trying.
