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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Hummingbirds and Flowers

I posted a link awhile back for a hummingbird cam, where viewers could watch Phoebe, the Allens hummingbird building her nest and laying eggs. The poor dear has had a rough season, with her eggs turning out non viable, or getting stolen by other birds, she's fought off lizards and squirrels, and just kept on tryin'! Well finally on this season's probably last attempt, she's had some joy, and the two eggs she laid have hatched into Hope and Hoku, who just get bigger every day!


© Olios 5.15.10 "Hope & Hoku..Feed Us Mom!"


I borrowed this picture from the picture gallery of Phoebe, click on it to go to the webcam site and see Phoebe and her little ones live! (You can also donate to the site, which I will do now, since I've watched it pretty extensively this season!)

Watching Phoebe has gotten me excited about hosting hummingbirds, or at least attracting some of my own. Phoebe makes her home in her host's rose bush in what appears to be a pretty sheltered courtyard in California, where she never has to migrate. I'm in Kansas, with pretty harsh winters, so while at first I was all "awesome, I'll just get me a red rose bush and voila!" that's probably not terribly realistic. Until I've fenced in my backyard, done more landscaping and added some feeders, it's not very likely I'll have my own hummingbirds. However, last year, I just happened to be passing by my front windows and noticed a blur outside one day, so when I stopped to take a look, there was a hummingbird, checking out my flowers! Remembering this in my Phoebe-fever, I've gotten some more of those particular flowers (shown below), so maybe I can at least be a stopover for any hummingbirds traveling by! One of the moderators of the Phoebe site had posted a link in the chat that talked about what flowers attracted hummingbirds, and sure enough, my flowers were at the top of the list! Here is that link if you are interested.

Attracting Hummingbirds


Thanks so much to the Phoebe team for sharing her with an international audience, she's beautiful, and an awesome spokesbird, and she doesn't even know it! ;)



Shaunie's flowers, Agastache 'Firebird' (the tall ones in the center, kind of pink and orange long narrow flowers shooting off from the center stalk) Alright hummingbirds, come on, I'm ready! :D

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