Anyone else have an unusually large number of hummingbirds this year?

[oosik]

When I still had my huge radio tower out in the yard - the wife planted four flowering plants - Clematis. Big light blue thru dark blue to almost blackish purple showy trumpet shaped flowers. The hummies would fight over those flowers just like they do the feeder. They are a climbing vine type plant. They finally topped out at 32 feet up the tower. A very showy spectacle in late spring - the entire first 32 feet of the tower was a mass of blue flowers.

 

[goeduck]

When I still had my huge radio tower out in the yard - the wife planted four flowering plants - Clematis. Big light blue thru dark blue to almost blackish purple showy trumpet shaped flowers. The hummies would fight over those flowers just like they do the feeder. They are a climbing vine type plant. They finally topped out at 32 feet up the tower. A very showy spectacle in late spring - the entire first 32 feet of the tower was a mass of blue flowers.

That would be enough to stop an airliner :thumbsup: nice :thumbsup:

 

[sixdogs]

We used to plant about 125 running feet of a small red vining flower that attracted humming birds. We let them climb on the 16' long hog or cattle fence panels the farm stores sell. The hummers really liked them. The plants were an impressive sight, but the feeders were a strong attraction as well.

I can't remember the name of those flowers but every night all the flowers dropped off and every morning new ones opened up. Wife is out now but upon return she will know and I will post the variety.


Also, we've seen birds show up just before dawn and even in the rain and near dark. Humans aren't looking then and may not see the bird coming around.

She just found the seed packets and we used two types; Cypress Vine was one and the other was Cardinal Climber Vine. We planted both kinds and had around 120' of them climbing on 4' high cattle panels. It is an amazing sight and I highly recommend it for the attraction of hummingbirds as well as the shock value of such an attractive sight with all the small red flowers Everyone asked about them. Cardinal Climber gets my vote.

This is what the seed packets say but wife says some people often call them different names.

We soaked the seeds in water first and then planted with the tip of a screwdriver. I added fertilizer as they grew and despite a slow start grew to be a foot taller than out panels and a wall thickness of maybe a foot or more. I'm pretty sure I posted pics on the TBN but can't seem to find them.


EDIT--Let me add that if you do the wall of flowers, still put up the feeders because they use both and I think at times prefer the feeders.

 

[oosik]

Today had been six days since the last of the HBs left to go south. Then this afternoon three of a different type showed up at the feeder. My normal 8 or 10 pairs are shiny purple/blue across their back(males) - females are just kind of medium brownish grey. These three were a shiny metallic red rust color and a bit larger humming bird. They stayed at the feeder for about two hours and then they left.

I'm sure glad I left the feeder up for these travelers.

 

[Diggin It]

^^ Cool. All I get are the regular green iridescent ones with red throats.

 

[sixdogs]

Today had been six days since the last of the HBs left to go south. Then this afternoon three of a different type showed up at the feeder. My normal 8 or 10 pairs are shiny purple/blue across their back(males) - females are just kind of medium brownish grey. These three were a shiny metallic red rust color and a bit larger humming bird. They stayed at the feeder for about two hours and then they left.

I'm sure glad I left the feeder up for these travelers.

Our local birds vanished last week but now we're getting a series of stragglers showing up every day. They zoom in and zoom out at the feeders and look very different in coloration from the birds that spent the summer with us. We've never seen anything like this with so many birds and so many different varieties..

Makes it worthwhile to have struggled through a few years with hardly any birds. Now the word must be out and we're on the map.

 

[Diggin It]

Seemed to be more activity yesterday. Afraid they're gearing up for the long trip. I like these silly little things and I hate to see them go.

 

[sixdogs]

Seemed to be more activity yesterday. Afraid they're gearing up for the long trip. I like these silly little things and I hate to see them go.

We watched our birds leave and then over the last week have had many dozens of different birds stop by. Quick in and quick out. We presume they are travelers and word must have spread that we're a food stop. Interesting thing is the feeders have been in use overnight so they are either feeding before dawn or after dusk or at night. The birds coming to ours now are definitely not our summer birds and very highly motivated to get back on the road. This is very interesting.

I'm glad we didn't give up in the early years when we only had a few birds.

 

[Gem99ultra]

We've needed to put up one more additional feeder this summer. Our biggest problem is when they go into the garage. So far we haven't found a good way to run them out, before they panic and over exert and die from lack of food. Sure don't want any to die...

If you know of a good way to run them out, please let me know. We spent 3 hours yesterday trying to get one to go back outside. The pain was certainly worthwhile though. Beautiful creatures, they are.

 

[Ford850]

We've needed to put up one more additional feeder this summer. Our biggest problem is when they go into the garage. So far we haven't found a good way to run them out, before they panic and over exert and die from lack of food. Sure don't want any to die...

If you know of a good way to run them out, please let me know. We spent 3 hours yesterday trying to get one to go back outside. The pain was certainly worthwhile though. Beautiful creatures, they are.

We've had the same problem with our garage. We realized they were being drawn into the garage by the garage door release cord and ball (both had red colors) and a red safety tag hanging from the hanger. Once those were removed (replaced cord and ball with black color) we haven't had any HB trapped in there. The car and truck taillights also draw them slightly in but luckily they always swoop back out before getting too far into the garage.
Before those changes, we tried everything to get them to fly out but never succeeded. If we get another one in there, I will try to close the overhead door and shade the windows and only open the man-door. Then leave it alone for awhile. I think the single source of daylight might work better to draw them out.