Alllll right!!!

Boy am I ready. I've been out every dawn and dusk for the last two weeks. I've got all sorts of flowers in bloom. If there are some around they should be visiting soon.

I am soooooo ready! I keep the map up and refresh all the time! It's so wonderful to see them on the move! Another couple of weeks, and I'll put up some feeders, just in case! I know it's still way too early, but one can never be tooo prepared!

Happy humming!
glo

I am half way between the sigings in La and Fl. My feeders are filled and ready for the early arrivals.

Oh now the fun has begun! I love watching the map fill up, my daughter and I love the anticipation of which one of us will get one first.

SInce their artificial nectar sources may be few and far between on the coast they may move inland earlier this year so we all may have some earlier arrivals than usual.

Penny

Wouldn't that be too wonderful, Penny! Longer time to pamper them and I'll be able to watch them all day this summer! Maybe I'd better find a way to keep my cleaning service thru the summer and dig up some good crock pot recipes! I know where I'll be the minute they hit VA/MD areas!
I'm going to start some LIR and a couple of other vines inside and see if I can get them going sooner than my ws seeds.
glo

I just saw a male ruby throat today. He was on the cigar plant which bloomed throughout the winter. I almost cut it back yesterday - glad I didn't.

Wonderful news Deb.

Deb
They are in Houston, Humble, Raisin and Lake Jackson
Penny

I just want to go on record now to let y'all know ahead of
time that i'd better not catch any of you DEEEEP southerners
holding my hummers hostage.

I'm expecting them to be here on time or i'm
coming to your house and get them.
Mimidi, Deb.;0)

Penny, how in the world are you?
Get those feeders ready, they are on their way.
WhoooooHoooo.

Janis, I have had a feeder out all winter long....honey I am ready!!!!!

penny

Hi Penny, So good to hear from you again...Am so excited that our little ruby throats are officially on their way! Also am hoping that your comment about them arriving earlier for lack of nectar sources is gonna happen! I am so impressed by your leaving a feeder up all winter!! An you are in New York? I was tempted - but took mine down Oct 30 - my last siting on Oct 11. I hope to put up many more feeders this year - would love to hear about your feeders.

Hi Carolyn
If we continue to get the southerly winds during the spring migration they may possibly push northward sooner. There is one right now in the Carolinas but there is no way of telling if it is one that may have overwintered along the gulf or it is actually a trans gulf migrant.

My last little migrating female arrived here on Sept. 28th and left here on Oct. 10th which was the latest I have ever had one leave. I was getting concerned that we would have to find a way to overwinter her as she was in no great hurry to depart.

I didn't have any winter vagrants at my feeder over the winter but it was out there just in case I did since it was such an unusually mild winter.

Penny

Hi Penny, Thanks for the info. My last hummer came Sept.26
and stayed thru awful cold weather and drenching rains leaving Oct 11.I had several feeders.It went to them often but it really loved my mulberry jam salvia which I had just bought late autumn and kept in a pot. Brought it in, kept on my sunporch - will put it out again when warm enuf. Last Aril I went to Tucson, Arizona for a week just to see hummingbirds. What a wonderful trip - saw 9 species- and am really missing that! But I'm just as excited to keep looking for a migrant rufous here - as I know they have been sited in CT - but for now of course our ruby throats are definitely coming! I think I'll put out feeders in a few weeks. I can literally sit and watch them for hours on end. Glad to know I am among other folks who feel the same love of hummingbirds! Thanks, Carol

Carol
\I am so obsessed that I take my work outside during the summer. I have even been know to move my sowing machine out onto the porch where I can watch the hummers when they come to the fuschias. They have moved into Georgia officially now and unofficially into the Carolinas so it won't be long now.

Penny

I saw that one dot on the Carolina coast for 3/11. Wow, but looking at the previous years it isn't so far away. Hopefully they will remember me from last year and tell some friends. My first year in this house that I really planted instead of doing hardscaping and hung out feeders and it was so sloooooooooow. Maybe 3 regulars. That is very sorry. I was tempted to go down the roads slaughtering all the japanise honeysuckle so they would leave it alone and seek out my house.

Our first year in this house I think I only saw 2 or 3 hummers. That was 7 yrs. ago. each year the flock has increased. When I lived in Louisiana we had hordes of hummers at least 6 months out of the year. Then I moved to NY and nothing. I didn't think there were any up here and I was so depressed and even threw my feeders out. When we finally bought this house 8 yrs after moving up here I decided to try again since I was told they do have hummers up here. Every year now they treat me with more and more little jewels to pamper.

Penny

I should see one any day now, Penny.
I'm so ready to see them again.

Janis we have been wondering if you have been keeping up with the map There is one that is almost on the Tenn./ Miss border

Penny

Wow, if they keep this up they will be at my house within a week or so. They are sooooooo clooooooose!!!!!! I'm trying not to get too excited and don't want to put out plants yet. Maybe geraniums or petunias would make it if I covered them for a sudden freeze. They were calling for freeze on Monday/Tuesday but they changed the forecast. Dare I???

If you put out anything now I would eiter cover it at night or move it to a protected area at night if you see that you are going to get close to a frost. Plants that have been grown under greenhouse conditions are much more susceptible to sudden temp changes.

Penny

I just bought some perrennials that I'm going to start to harden off (and a replacement coral honeysuckle)that should be fine to put out in a couple weeks. We have no frost predicted but still chance of freezing and it is still a couple weeks early. I can wait.

I've been watching the map, Penny, I also have my feeders out.
I thought perhaps they would move northward quicker this
year due to the hurricane damage last year.They surely
don't have as many nectar producing flowers this year.
The whole area along the gulf is stripped.
They are tough little birds, I admire their spunkiness.

Hi Penny, Am getting so excited yet concerned since I just checked the map and no movement north since 3/18 or 3/19. Perhaps I am too impatient. Wonder if the big snowstorm in Illinos into Tennessee had anything to do with it. Hope it didn't catch any hummers by surprise although I know they are very savy about moving when a big storm is brewing. I am also hoping next week will be warmer!! Wonder if Lowe's or Home Depot has any flowering plants yet...have to take a trip. Our local garden market doesn't open util Palm Sunday. However I think this year I will buy some at Lowe's and keep on my sunporch. Would also like to learn more about winter sowing that you do...:) Carol

Hey Carol.

Check out the Wintersowing FAQ page and the wintersowing forum.

Basically you sow your seeds in containers with drainage holes of previously moistened soil (anything that is at least 3 inches deep), cover the container with a clear cover that has aspiration holes and put it outside until the seeds germinate at the appropriate time according to ma nature. This works very well for perennials, and hardy annuals. More tender plants can also be done but we do them around the end of March or early April.

Penny

Janis
Due to the stormy and cold temps that have blanketed the midwest and northward, migration has slowed a bit.
We will probably start seeing a little more action as temps get back to normal for this time of year later this week and into next.

penny