Show your butterfly and hummingbird gardens/plants

[SpookyShoe]

A bee helping himself to the flowers of the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary butterfly.

[GoDawgs]

Great pic! Happy bee!

Do you get many monarchs? I don't think I've seen one around here but then I don't think I have much around that they like.

[SpookyShoe]

I get a lot of monarchs but then I have milkweed planted here and there. They visit several different kinds of flowers I have in my yard.

[SpookyShoe]

Saw my first hummingbird (fall migration) early this morning! I've had one feeder out for about 10 days, and after I saw the bird this morning I put up two more. And there are lots and lots of flowers for them also.

[SpookyShoe]

They like to lap up any nectar that seeps through the openings of the feeder.

[SpookyShoe]

Skyscraper Pink, Summer Jewel Red, and Mystic Spires Blue.
The hummingbirds in my backyard now seem to like the feeders best. The blue salvia, however, seems to attract a great deal of bees.

[GoDawgs]

Spooky, I think my hummers are headed your way. Last week it was very obvious that there weren't as many hummers around and yesterday the feeders were hardly touched at all. Just a couple of hummers zooming around, a far cry from the hoards that were here. Last night Pickles took down the three feeders and put up just one quart-size feeder.

This is early! I wonder if they can sense that there's bad weather coming (we'll get hardly any storming here from Dorian) or if it will be an early fall or if it's just "that time".

We'll leave the feeder up for about another month for any passers-by.

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by SpookyShoe

Skyscraper Pink, Summer Jewel Red, and Mystic Spires Blue.
The hummingbirds in my backyard now seem to like the feeders best. The blue salvia, however, seems to attract a great deal of bees.

This week I bought a skyscraper pink and one that has two plants in one pot with one of them being a darker pink. It is late in the season here but I bought them for next year. I wish they would send these plants here earlier and smaller than a 2 gal. It was funny looking through it as I brought one of them home in the front basket of my bicycle.
It is hummingbird approved in my yard, I see. The bees here also like all the salvias, including hotlips where they buzz all day.

[crankyoldfart]

GoDawgs, waaaaayyyyy too early to take down your feeders. I’m 831 miles north northeast of Augusta. I still have AT LEAST a half dozen birds on my six feeders this morning, when the low temp was 54 F. I expect to see birds regularly through about the 15th, then sporadically for the next week. I’d think you should have a good six weeks of activity remaining. I offer the following link for your viewing pleasure. IIRC the cam was live until about the 1st of December last year, but it has relocated this season, so who knows.

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channe..._Hummingbirds/

sorry, you'll have to cut and paste. or not.....

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by crankyoldfart

GoDawgs, waaaaayyyyy too early to take down your feeders. I’m 831 miles north northeast of Augusta. I still have AT LEAST a half dozen birds on my six feeders this morning, when the low temp was 54 F. I expect to see birds regularly through about the 15th, then sporadically for the next week. I’d think you should have a good six weeks of activity remaining.

Well now, I just thought about getting out last year's calendar, where I note all kinds of things, including hummer arrivals and departures. I have calendars going back years. Interesting. It says on September 12, 2018 "Very few hummers".

Wow, September 6, 2017 says "Hums almost gone". And then on the 9th, "Hums gone".

So for us, it's not too early to take the feeders down. There is still a quart feeder out there which will stay there (periodically changed out with fresh stuff, of course) until mid October just in case some northern hums need a pit stop. There are still a few hums zipping around out there but it's far from the numbers that not long ago made the feeder area look like Atlanta's Hartsfield airport!

Like Motel 6, we'll leave the light on and take care of any of yours if they come through here.

[GrowingCoastal]

Do you get the Rufous hummingbirds flying through on their migration south? I saw one take a bath this morning. Surprised it's still here.

[GoDawgs]

I've never seen a Rufous here.

[SpookyShoe]

I haven't been able to get any good pictures this year; either I am not prepared or the birds fly away when they see me coming. In this photo you can barely see the bird flying away from the feeder.

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

I've never seen a Rufous here.

Sometimes they get blown off course and do end up on the wrong side of the continent. That one is still one visiting my yard and I worry that it has stayed so late. Maybe now that the rains have come it will leave. Better go soon!

[SpookyShoe]

She was sitting on a branch of a crepe myrtle guarding her feeder.