Your garden looks great standard a real hummer heaven! That pendulem swing could be for attracting a female but it can also be used to show who's boss and for the others to get out or behave! Sarah

Standard - What a beautiful garden you have! And how gratifying that it is already being noticed and used. Keep the pictures coming.

Also, what an exciting start to your day. I might have been tempted to be late for work!

I think we saw this behavior you have described, this weekend. My DH has been painting the front of the house, on a ladder, and he got buzzed first of all, then the little Rufous did that pendulem swing move on him. (DH was wearing a red T Shirt.) I wish I could have caught a picture but was too slow, as usual. I guess maybe the Rufous had to show who was boss? Or, maybe he was trying to attract the female (?) LOL

Flowerpower, you took the words right out of my mouth. A fantastic hummer garden! Standard you have really been busy this year.

Oh Standard your garden is sooo pretty and clean. You have really created a great area for the hummers to visit and enjoy.

Standard,
What a lovely assortment of well placed flowers, and the goings on in there this mourning ,well I would of called in sick.

You know that could have been a mating dance I saw it happen the exact same way today over the flower bed the beebalm at first I thought it was agression who's boss kind of dance but after reading what Lisa wrote they have time to raise a second set of baby hummers Sarah

Standard,

What a wonderful array of flowers and color!

Am sure you will be seeing lots more hummie activity...more so when you have so much fence room for them to perch when they try to stake claim to your garden!

Keep posting photos!!!

~ Cat

wow, thanks for the kind comments, folks! this spot was lawn 12 months ago. I have learned more on this forum than I would have in 10 years of trial and error.
it was getting like a jungle in june, crowded and shading each other, and mildew. I thinned the stragglers, and moved a lot of stuff, and I weed and deadhead ruthlessly.
for what it's worth, I put bonemeal on this bed last fall, and fish emulsion on it this past spring. other than that, I have never fed or fertilized it. other than the rootballs that came in pots from the nursery with new plants, it is all organic, as far as I know. I dig really deep holes (about 18") and then turn around and backfill them to plant out or move a plant, so that the soil is all loose underneath it. I pour stones in the hole, too, if I have some.
I was indeed already very late for work from watching them all morning, so I had to split.

sarah, I'll be watching. I've heard that females can double or even triple-brood in a season. last year, I had 2 distinct batches of different age/development juvies here. although I get infrequent sightings starting in early april, the 'regulars' show up here in july. I wonder if females might double-brood in 2 different locations?

flowerpower, he must have been painting in the rufous' territory. ?

here's some more pics, cat.

the stump bed. (there was a tree stump there) sorry about the garbage cans. I moved them the day after I made this pic. that's moonvine climbing that ground wire.

the fence bed in feb or march. I was making the bed twice as wide as last august.

That's really nice standard You should put a cross vine on the fence or do you already have one? Sarah

there is a cross vine that reaches the telephone wires on the opposite lot line that I didn't plant. it blooms out earlier than the hummers arrive here in town. I do love it, though, and would plant it in future residences.
now that the trumpet vine is blooming in the wild here, I can see that I like crossvine much better. it blooms much more densely from what I see, and has a smaller blossom, better sized for hummingbirds. good idea, sarah!

Such pretty pictures Standard. Everything is so pretty and green. You have done such a good job with your flowers. Those are cone flowers aren't they. I planted some seeds this year and have some little plants coming along. I hope I have some blooms next year.

Standard, your gardens are so pretty and neat. You've put alot of work and effort into your plantings. I'll bet you get alot of butterflies there, too. Very nice. Linda

those are indeed purple coneflowers, mimidi, echinacea purpurea, the flower from which echinacea tincture, a natural immune-system booster sold in health food stores, is made. I really like them, and will try to have them every year. individual blossoms last literally for weeks, and the plant blooms nonstop from early summer til frost. in between the coneflower and the aloe in the container next to the yellow lantana, between them are a couple coneflower from winter sown seeds from the mother coneflower here. I don't know if they will blossom this year or not. keep us posted if yours do. they will next year, I bet. very hardy here. came back with no care or preparation in a winter that went down to 1 degree F. I don't see adult hummers nectaring at it regularly, but I've seen juvies poking at it, investigating their world. bees and butterflies love it.

I saw a really different butterfly tuesday morning sunning on the sidewalk, fanning its wings slowly. it flew off as I went to get the camera to take a pic so you or miss sherry or someone here could ID it. it had blackish-blue iridescent wings with a circle on each one. each wing was sort of shaped like a closed grand piano viewed from above, not delta shaped. ??