Hummingbird Nectar News 2023

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Stachytarpheta,  Photo by Michael J. Rock, 8/30/2021

Dear Friends, 

Once again, it has been a long time since we have been in touch.  However, we are thinking of you and hoping that you and your family are staying well and safe and that you are enjoying the hummingbirds, butterflies, and other summer creatures of beauty and wonder.   

It is such an exciting time of the year with the great fall migration of hummingbirds coming in September and we hope that you’ll stop in and share it with us a bit later this season!

If you need information about hummingbird feeders, please e-mail Kathi at kathijr@yahoo.com.  Just a reminder, no matter what feeder you decide to use, it must be scrubbed and cleaned, and the nectar changed every few days or when the nectar is visibly cloudy, especially when weather is hot and humid.  Fermented or spoiled nectar could sicken or kill a hummingbird.  Red dyes are unnecessary---use ONLY white table sugar and water in feeders.  Ant and bee guards will help keep these insects away from your feeders.  Thank you in advance for caring about your hummingbirds and for all the hard work this entails!!  Use of hummingbird feeders at all points during the hummingbird season (early May through mid-October) is key and highly encouraged, especially if you live in an urban area.  Despite our huge garden, we still see hummingbirds use our feeders quite often.  Some young birds will never learn to use feeders and will only feed from flowers, but other birds will primarily visit feeders.  Feeders also help on very rainy days when flower nectar is diluted or washed away, very early in the morning or at dusk, or on a very cold day as we approach the days of fall.    Hummingbird feeders help to identify your garden as one designed for hummingbirds and the red on the feeder will bring hummingbirds into your city or suburban garden (hummingbirds can see red for up to ¼ mile away!).  The extra work involved in maintaining feeders has been very worthwhile for us.  If you have any questions about the use or maintenance of feeders, please don’t hesitate to ask us.

We saw our first hummingbird, an adult male Ruby-throat on May 5.  We had a little bit of an unusual spring with a long lag in between our first and second sighting and then hummingbird sightings were somewhat sporadic throughout May and June.  However, we are now having much more hummingbird activity in early August.  We hope this will continue to increase as we get closer to our upcoming Hummingbird Garden Tours.  We hope you have been seeing many hummingbirds and that you have been enjoying your hummingbirds and gardens.  As an aside, we have been enjoying a GREAT butterfly season after a very slow season in 2022!

That brings us to our major topic for this communication, our upcoming Hummingbird Garden Tours.    The dates of the tours are WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 3-7 P.M. and SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1-5 P.M. at our home, 5118 Buffalo Trail, Madison, WI  53705.  Events will be held rain or shine (hope for sun!)

-No food or drink will be served.  Please feel free to bring your own food or drink,  

-We cannot allow people to use our restroom facilities or enter our home except in an extreme emergency and we apologize in advance.

-Please do not bring us food, sugar, or other gifts---while we so much appreciate your generosity in the past, we ask that you refrain from doing so again this year.  Your presence at our event is your gift to us!

-Mickey O’Connor and her “crewe” have generously offered to band hummingbirds in our yard for the Wednesday tour only. We are so very happy to have them back again!

-Larry and Emily Scheunemann will once again be with us to present their fun and informative class about hummingbirds.  The class will occur at 3 p.m. on both Wednesday and Sunday.

-The door prize drawings will occur at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.  You must be present to win a door prize.

-We thank Wildbirds Unlimited for their wonderful support and helping us to publicize this annual event.  We also thank Klein’s Floral for publicizing our events in their monthly email newsletter.

We thank Christina Ciano and Jeff Buss for their generous donation of “A Place In The Garden” DVD’s.

-All handout pieces will be available only online at our website or by special request by e-mailing Kathi at kathijr@yahoo.com.

-We reserve the right to modify these arrangements as needed and required and to cancel the event if needed. from contracting COVID-19.

 

What Will You See & Experience at our Garden Tours?

-Hummingbirds, butterflies, dragonflies, and other pollinators, beautiful flowers, and our pond!

-Hopefully, great weather, which we have been very lucky to experience for all our past tours except for one year.  Let’s all hope for no rain again this year!

-Door prizes---We will have a short program and small door prize drawing at each tour (5 p.m. on Wednesday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.)

-We will be thrilled to see you all, along with some friends, once again as we enjoy hummingbirds together!

 

A Few Reminders:

-Many bees and wasps are present in a garden with so many nectar producing flowers and sugar water feeders, especially in September.  We ask that you be very cautious and come prepared if you have a bee or wasp allergy or sensitivity.  Be very careful when walking around our garden that you don’t brush up against a bee or wasp by accident.  If you are allergic or sensitive to bee or wasp stings, please take precautions.

-Only our front yard is accessible for people with physical disabilities who use a wheelchair or walker.

-Wear sensible and comfortable footwear as ground may be uneven or rocky.

-Photography of anything in our garden is absolutely allowed and encouraged.

-Minor children must always be supervised.

-We have a neighborhood cat who sometimes joins us for the tour, but we ask that you NOT bring any pets to the tours!  We strongly recommend you keep cats indoors!!

If you have any questions about the Garden Tours, please e-mail Kathi at kathijr@yahoo.com.  You can also visit our website at www.hummingbirdgardening.net   (and while you’re there, take a peek at the beautiful photos, all taken by Michael, and other valuable information.)

HOW TO CHOOSE THE “BEST” FLOWERS FOR HUMMINGBIRDS?

What are key aspects of a great hummingbird flower?

-Tubular shape

-Flowers are red, orange, or purple

-The flower does not emit fragrance (the leaves of many hummingbird flowers such as Bee Balm, Agastache, and Salvia guaranitica are very aromatic but the flowers themselves are fragrance free, identifying them for hummingbirds alone.  Bees and butterflies are fond of fragranced flowers and often compete with hummingbirds for nectar.)

-Nectar is clearly present at the end of the flower tube (go ahead, test it for yourself!)

-Blooms over a long season (something great should always be in bloom!)

It seems that every season is a bit different in terms of what hummingbirds seem to prefer to feed from in our garden.  Tropical Salvias are still one of our “best” flowers for hummingbirds and you simply cannot go wrong with Salvia guaranitica (‘Black and Blue’ is very available locally or online and Salvia ‘Amistad’ has been excellent this year, but there are many others too.)   Cuphea ‘Vermillionaire’, which is very available at our local nurseries is another excellent annual for hummingbirds and is easy to grow in hanging baskets or containers (Cuphea ‘David Verity’ is also excellent, but is only available by mail order).   The flowers of cuphea are the perfect size and shape for a Ruby-throated hummingbird’s bill and the plant requires no deadheading.   Both Salvia guaranitica and Cuphea bloom continuously over the hummingbird season and sometimes beyond, weather depending.  Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens, the ‘Major Wheeler’ variety) has always been great for our hummingbirds and is a carefree, tough perennial vine that always seems to be in bloom---if you don’t have this plant in your garden, we highly recommend that you get one! (never plant Japanese Honeysuckle and be warned that Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) is very aggressive in the landscape and is not in bloom for the fall migration) The honeysuckle flowers are a single tube with sweet nectar at the end, a hummingbird’s delight (not that much different than the flowers of Cuphea!)!  Monarda ‘Jacob Kline’ (brilliant red flowers) is a key perennial and blooms for a long time during summer, but sadly is not blooming for the fall migration in September, but we still highly recommend this perennial plant for hummingbirds.  We have numerous Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ in our garden this year and hummingbirds have loved them.  They always seem to be in bloom and can take any weather condition you throw at them with ease.  Salvia coccinea has also been a winner for us and the hummingbirds and is so easy to grow from seed or is available as a plant from Klein’s Floral in Madison.  Canna indica has been wonderful for our hummingbirds this season and having to dig up the tubers in the fall is a small price to pay for these beautiful sun and water loving plants!  We have many plants in our garden that we overwintered inside of our sunroom and they grow much taller in their second year, which is helpful for hummingbirds. It is so much more satisfying to see hummingbirds use the flowers and flowers (annual or perennial) are a great way to further extend your enjoyment of hummingbirds.  It is very important to plant flowers and hang feeders where you can easily see and enjoy them!

 

HOW DOES CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT HUMMINGBIRDS?

We have all felt the dismaying effects of climate change during this hotter and drier and smokier summer, but how does climate change affect our hummingbird friends? 

We heard a very informative presentation given by a hummingbird bander stationed in Alaska at the recent Sedona Hummingbird Festival.  She spoke about the Rufous hummingbird and how it has recently become close to endangered due to the devastating effects of climate change.  These long-distance flyers (they breed in Alaska in the spring and migrate back to Mexico and Central America in the fall) depend on certain wildflowers being in bloom during their spring migration---due to warmer temperatures, many key wildflowers are blooming much earlier and then are unavailable to the birds, as they migrate based on length of day and arrive too late.  Wildfire smoke is also thought to be a hazard, usually hummingbirds can just fly around fire and smoke, but fires have been so extensive this season that it might be more challenging for a bird the size of your thumb to do this successfully.  It is thought that Rufous hummingbirds are more sensitive to the effects of climate change.  Another aspect of this issue is that many hummingbirds will fly to higher elevations to reach cooler temperatures, but those higher elevations are then unable to support their need for oxygen.  This article discusses research being done:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hummingbirds-may-help-scientists-understand-how-animals-could-adapt-to-climate-change-180980163/

It is a very depressing thought that hummingbirds one day could become extinct because our changing earth cannot no longer support their needs.  Much research needs to be done about how hummingbirds respond to climate change,

So, what can you do to help?  The most important thing you can do is to create a home for hummingbirds (and other birds) in your very own backyard.  If the world outside of your property is struggling to provide for hummingbirds, you as a private citizen can help them through your feeders, the flowers you plant, a source of running water, and mature trees and thick shrubbery for nesting and perching!  

Additionally, you may wish to get involved in various local and national birding organizations as a volunteer and a donor to help protect habitat for hummingbirds and other birds.

We will continue to provide updates on this important and concerning issue as it develops.

 

OVERWINTERING TENDER HUMMINGBIRD PLANTS (We have repeated this article from last year since so many people ask us about this topic!)

Fall and winter are coming and soon it will sadly be time to say goodbye to our garden for the year.  Unfortunately, so many of the best plants for hummingbirds cannot survive in our cold and snowy winters in Wisconsin.  It does become very pricey to purchase new plants every spring in anticipation of the coming hummingbird season, especially since many of those plants can only be found online and shipping these days is not inexpensive.  We have a good-sized sunroom with a space heater to minimally heat the room and we are so lucky to have this space for plant overwintering.  The room has skylights and windows on three sides and the space heater heats it to around 50 degrees, which is perfect for so many tender plants, especially the Salvia guaranitica types.  The plants often look quite ragged or even go dormant, but most do come back again once they are outside again in the late spring.  Cuphea also overwinters quite well for us in this room.  We feel that the key is a low temperature that is quite far from freezing (most basements are way too warm as we’ve found and an unheated garage or shed is too cold) and minimal watering (overwatering can easily kill an overwintering plant!)  There are a few plants that we’ve found are better treated as annuals and it’s best to repurchase them every spring, especially the Salvia splendens types and many of the southwestern salvias and a few other central and South American salvias.  All Cupheas we have in hanging pots are replanted in the ground in the spring and we get new small plants for the pots (a two inch cuphea plant can easily fill a 12 inch hanging pot in no time) ---that way we have a beautiful plant in the ground that is 3-4 feet tall and we are getting two years out of a tender plant.  We also replant most overwintered salvias in the ground and get new ones for containers, getting two years out of every plant.  If you don’t have a sunroom or a greenhouse, other ways to preserve tender plants include taking cuttings and collecting seeds---seeds will not work for every salvia because often the new plant that grows from a seed will not be like the original plant.  With cuttings, you must have a grow light in a warm place and a commitment to keep the new little plants alive until spring.  Here is an excellent link if you are interested in trying cuttings to make more plants and to preserve the plants you and the hummers enjoyed so much during the summer and early fall:  https://www.thespruce.com/make-more-plants-with-cuttings-1402474

ARTICLE ABOUT OUR GARDEN FROM “MIDWEST LIVING” MAGAZINE

This article about our garden was published in “Midwest Living” Magazine in June 2012 and we thought it might be of interest to you.  It is an excellent summary about various elements of hummingbird garden in our area of the country.

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As the summer winds down hummingbird activity, however, ramps up as these summer visitors prepare for their trip south in the weeks ahead.

 

Start a Hummingbird Garden

Learn how to draw the world's tiniest birds to your garden with these colorful flowers.

Written by Amy McDowell for Midwest Living @ www.midwestliving.com/garden/flowers/hummingbird-garden/?page=0

 

Tiny Joys

Gardeners Kathi and Michael Rock of Madison, are enchanted with hummingbirds. "Hummingbirds truly embody the magic, joy and freedom that we as humans would love to have," Kathi says.

 

Kathi knows hummingbirds' amazing statistics: They can fly faster than any other birds and have the largest proportionate brain size. And, of course, they can hover and snatch insects in midair.

 

Kathi and Michael first fell in love with hummingbirds a decade ago after adding a hummingbird feeder to their backyard. Now they have two dozen feeders and more than a hundred kinds of annuals and perennials to cater to the tastes and habits of their flying friends.

 

"We try to have plants that bloom at every point during the season," Kathi says. The feeders fill in when flowers aren't growing in early spring and after fall frosts.

 

The Rocks pass along their 10 years of expertise (now, about 20 years!) by hosting a hummingbird gardening website (www.hummingbirdgardening.net) and by giving community presentations. They've learned a lot over the years about hummingbird habits in the Midwest.

 

Although there are 300 kinds of hummingbirds, the ruby-throated (left) is the only one common throughout the Midwest. The tiny birds arrive here in May and June, then leave gardens to build nests in isolated forest areas. As soon as mating is over, in early July, the males begin to migrate because they play no role in raising the young. Females head south after their offspring learn to fly.

 

"We see an increase in the number of hummingbirds beginning in early August," Kathi says. "Our peak time in Madison is traditionally mid-September. By then, most of the adult males are gone, and we're seeing female and immature birds almost exclusively."

 

Hummingbirds will dine from flowers of any color, but red attracts them best. "They can see red up to a mile away," Kathi says.

 

Flowers with tubular blossoms evolved with hummingbirds, so the Rocks keep a good supply. Hummingbirds also eat spiders and insects, including mosquitoes and gnats.

Kathi recommends six plants to get your hummingbird garden started: perennials honeysuckle, bee balm and cardinal flower, as well as annuals Mexican cigar plant, blue anise sage and Texas sage.

 

Bee balm (Monarda didyma) has blooms that look like starbursts and fragrant foliage. It reaches 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Grow in full sun or light shade. Zone 4.  Monarda 'Jacob Klein'(tall and brilliant red)  is the best variety for hummingbirds. 

 

The red or red-orange variety of Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) blooms with trumpet-shape flowers on a vine that reaches 10-15 feet long. Grow in full sun. Zone 4.

 

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) attracts hummers with fire truck red blossoms on 2- to 3-foot-tall stalks from late summer through fall. Grow in full sun or part shade. Zone 2.  Other varieties of lobelia are not as attractive to hummingbirds.

 

Mexican cigar plant (Cuphea 'David Verity' or 'Vermillionaire') grows 2 feet tall with orange tubular flowers and tips that resemble lit cigars. It flowers from early summer until frost, grows well in containers and thrives in full sun. Annual.

 

Blue anise sage (Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue" is an example of one variety) blooms with purple flowers from summer through fall. It reaches 2-4 feet tall. Grow in full sun to part shade. Annual.  Note that salvias perennial in zones 3, 4 and 5 do not work well for hummingbirds. 

 

Texas sage (Salvia coccinea) flowers prolifically with red flowers summer through fall. It reaches 2 feet tall and grows easily from seed. Grow in full sun.

 

Make Your Own Nectar

When your flowers aren't blooming, feeders will help attract hummingbirds. Mix one part white table sugar (do not use other sugars, honey or artificial sweeteners) with four parts tap water. Sugar dissolves quickly in warm water, so there's no need to boil it. When nectar looks cloudy or moldy, wash the feeder and refill with a fresh batch.

 

While a traditional feeder is hung off a house or on a stand near your home, many different varieties are available, including ones that you can place in the ground (left) at any attractive spot in your garden.  Place feeders and flowers where you can easily see and enjoy them as hummingbirds visit.

 

In addition to the above, other annuals that attract hummingbirds include; Agastache, fuchsias (especially 'Gartenmeister'), lantana, nicotiana and pentas. 

 

 

OTHER NEWS

-Rufous Hummingbird Update:   Two adult male Rufous hummingbirds have already been seen in Wisconsin in July 2023, which is very unusual (typically, they are seen later in the season) ---one in Central Wisconsin near Wausau and another in Oregon, Wisconsin.  Both birds have now moved on.  Another possible Rufous hummingbird was seen near Ashland, Wisconsin, but no photos were taken to document the bird.   Wisconsin has been so fortunate to host many of these Western US visitors over the years!

-Don’t forget about Journeynorth.org (located in Madison at the UW Arboretum) as the fall migration approaches.  This informational page from the Journey North website is extremely informative:  https://journeynorth.org/hummingbirds

-International Hummingbird Society:  We attended the Sedona Hummingbird Festival this year and it was once again a wonderful experience!  The number of hummingbirds at the banding site was incredible against the backdrop of the spectacular Red Rocks and the presentations at the auditorium were very informative and inspiring.  Feeders were set up right outside of the auditorium and hummingbirds visited all day long.  Shopping at the Hummingbird Marketplace was a lot of fun.  Beth Kingsley Hawkins did a wonderful job as the interim executive director and a new director has now been hired and will be starting soon.    To learn more about the International Hummingbird Society visit their website at:  https://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/ or on Facebook.

-2024 PBS Wisconsin Garden & Landscape Expo, February 9-11, 2024.  https://wigardenexpo.com/   We plan to submit our “Gardening for Hummingbirds” seminar again and a new seminar about the use of salvias in the garden.  We hope that a few of you might join us for this exciting and informative community event!!

 

THANK YOU & ENJOY YOUR HUMMINGBIRDS!!   See you at the Garden Tours!!