Glass hummingbird clip ornament

This glass hummingbird clip ornament will definitely make a sparkly addition to your Christmas tree. It’s colors are black, blue, green, red and white. Has a gold colored clip at the bottom. Measures 4.5″ x 3″ and is made in the United States.

Glass hummingbird clip ornament made in the US.

Posted in Hummingbird gifts, Hummingbird ornaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wooden hummingbird ornament

A hummingbird ornament is a great gift for someone who loves hummingbirds or even just birds in general. Of course, you can always purchase it yourself and have a hummingbird themed Christmas tree, too. Here’s a unique wooden hummingbird ornament. The design with the hummingbird is blue, green and purple. A purple violet is also featured on the design. Measures 3″x3.6″. It has the hummingbird design on one side with the back a natural finish of the wood. A hand-tied cord for hanging is included. You’ll be able to enjoy the beauty of these magical little birds even when they’ve gone to warmer weather for the winter.

Wooden hummingbird ornament

Posted in Hummingbird ornaments | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Final hummingbird sighting for 2016

rubythroat resting in tree

rubythroat in shadows

Resting rubythroat

Our final hummingbird sighting for 2016 was September 20th, which is about a week later than usual for us. This year they arrived about a week earlier than usual and left a week later than usual. That was nice because we got to see them a little longer this year.

We saw about the same amount of hummingbirds this year, if not more but overall it wasn’t as good a year as most. I say that because they would visit the feeders but leave soon afterwards. Usually, they would feed from the many plants we have for them, but not much this year. We think the reason for this may have been due to two things. First, some of the plants didn’t seem to grow or bloom that well until late in the year. A cold and long Spring combined with a hot and dry Summer may have been the plant problem.

We had to remove a huge pine tree from our yard before the season started and think that may have been the reason for the quick visits. We’re thinking the big tree gave them security by shielding them from the rest of the world and that made them stay longer. We’ve planted a smaller tree in the spot close to where the pine tree was, but it will probably take a while to get big enough to help.

Above are a few photos we took this year but we had hoped to get some better pictures with them feeding on plants. Hopefully, things will go differently next year.

Posted in Hummingbird season | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

First hummingbird feeder up and first hummingbird sighting for 2016

dish type feeder

We put our first hummingbird feeder up on Wednesday afternoon, April 20th and had our first hummingbird sighting for 2016 a week later on the 27th at about 6:30 that evening. It was a male ruby throated hummingbird.

April 27th is probably one of the earliest dates that we’ve seen our first hummingbird. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any since. Reason may be that the weather hasn’t been very nice for hummingbirds. It’s been cold and wet.

Hopefully, we’ll get some pictures soon so we can make our first pictures of 2016 post.

Posted in Hummingbird season | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hummingbird watch

This hummingbird watch is perfect for any hummingbird lover, garden lover or someone with a sense of style looking for a whimsical or fun watch. It’s a women’s leather band analog quartz movement wrist watch. It features a hummingbird with pretty flowers.

Women's leather band analog quartz movement hummingbird wrist watch

Posted in Hummingbird jewelry | Tagged | Leave a comment

Final hummingbird sighting for 2015

Our final hummingbird sighting for 2015 was September 12th and I think that was about the last time we made a post. If I remember correctly, our first sighting was almost a week earlier than usual. For the most part we had a few different hummingbirds visit almost everyday, which is pretty much our normal.

After a blizzard last week, we are sure looking forward to Spring and the return of our hummingbirds. Our best producing plants this past year were pretty much the same as every year, the Cardinal Climber and the Salvia – Black and Blue. We did try one new plant this past season, the Vermillionaire a Cuphea hybrid (cigar plant) but it didn’t get used as much as the others.

We’re still finding it a challenge to get really good photos of our little visitors but we plan to keep working at it. Below are a few more photos from this past season. If you may have an interest here is some hummingbird art for sale

Hummingbird and agastache photo

Male Ruby-throated hummingbird photo

Little girl ruby-throated hummingbird photo

Posted in Hummingbird season | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A few more hummingbird pictures from 2015

Below are a few more hummingbird pictures we took this year, 2015. With our hummingbird season coming to an end I certainly can say we had a lot of visitors this year. It seems like the longer we keep putting out feeders and plants for the hummingbirds they keep coming back in larger numbers each year. As time goes on it still doesn’t get any easier trying to get good pictures of these little birds. Soon we’ll make another post about our last hummingbird sighting of the season. If you’re interested in looking at more of our hummingbird pictures they can be seen at our photography web site, Purplebear’s Photography
Hummingbird flying
Rubythroated flying
Hummingbird and agastache

Posted in Hummingbird season | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

First hummingbird sighting and pictures of 2015

Our first hummingbird sighting for 2015 was Friday, May 1st almost a week earlier than last year. As in past years we saw them for about a week or two and then they started nesting. After then we would only see them for short periods of time early and late in the day.

The last week or so they have been visiting our feeder constantly, sometimes 2 or 3 at a time. You would think with all this activity it was already August. We haven’t noticed them feeding from any of our plants, but they appear to not all be full grown yet.

Here are a few  hummingbird pictures we took recently and hopefully we’ll get some that are better when the hummingbirds start feeding from our plants.

Female hummingbird at feeder
Hummingbird in flight
Hummingbird looking for intruders

Posted in Hummingbird season | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to attract hummingbirds

First, let me say that we live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania so we usually only attract Ruby-throat hummingbirds. We start by putting out our first feeder(s) around April 15th and usually see our first visitors in about 2 or 3 weeks. We use dish type feeders for a couple of reasons, one because they are easy to clean and refill, two there is no bottle to block your view in case a hummingbird lands on the side you can’t see. It is extremely important to keep your feeders clean and fresh. We clean and refill ours every 3 to 4 days and if it is real hot maybe sooner. We fill our feeders with a mixture of one part sugar and four parts water with no coloring. Some people boil the water but we do not. We clean our feeders with a sponge, vinegar and warm water.

As for plants we have tried many and have had a few that work better for us than others. cc1aSalvia – black and blue seems to be our best with the Cardinal Climber a close second. We also have had good success with Lobelia Cardinalis ( Queen Victoria ) and a yellow honeysuckle called John Clayton. The lobelia needs a lot of water and honeysuckle can have aphid problems. So for now our best bet would be the Salvia – black and blue and the Cardinal Climber. The salvia we have in a container on our deck and also in our flower bed. The Cardinal Climber we grow from seed in a large container with a trellis.

Last year we also tried Agastache – Tuti Fruti and Salvia – Wendy’s Wish. They both worked pretty well. We found out if you sal1akeep your feeders clean, full and give the hummingbirds some good plants to feed from they will come back year after year. This coming season we’re thinking of trying Cuphea ignea – cigar plant for the first time because we have read it’s a good hummingbird attracting plant.

Just like clock work, the first or second week of September our hummingbirds leave. We keep our feeders up for a couple of weeks and there are still plants blooming for the hummingbirds migrating through.

A couple other thoughts we have are if you are sitting outside watching your hummingbirds the least amount of movement will help them get used to you being there. Also, if you put up more than one feeder they should not be within eye sight of each other. The reason for this is because this type of hummingbird is very territorial and they spent a lot of time chasing each other away from the feeders.

Posted in Hummingbird information | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Porcelain hummingbird Christmas ornament

It’s that time of year when you might want to start thinking about ornaments for your Christmas tree. If you like hummingbirds or even just the idea of decorating your tree with a bird or wildlife theme, below is a porcelain hummingbird Christmas ornament that you might like.

Porcelain hummingbird Christmas ornament
Pretty white porcelain Christmas ornament measures approximately 3 inches. It features a full color image of a green and violet hummingbird on both the front and back of ornament. Gold string is included for easy hanging.

Posted in Hummingbird ornaments | Tagged | Leave a comment