First Hummingbird of the Season!

[Chief]

I was standing in the back yard this afternoon talking with my neighbor Commsense, when we were bussed by a good sized Rufous Hummingbird, the first one I've seen this year. It came back and started sipping from the flowers on some Allium that's in full bloom. He chedked those out and then perched on one of the nearby tomato cages, then back onto the allium. He was even sampling the raspberry flowers.

I think the scent from the petunias is drawing them in already, and they should be here in droves when the bee balm blooms...pretty cool!!

;D

[tefen]

The other day I noticed two small birds sitting on the power line outside my window. They were tiny. It took me a while to realize they were hummingbirds, I've never really seen them sitting still before!

The neighbor told me the trick of attracting Gold Finches as well... apparently they're nuts for thistle. He had four of them, all over his feeder the last evening.

[Chief]

We really concentrated on hummingbird attratants in the back yard this year. We normally have 4-5 regulars in the summer...

[karma]

tefen, the red hot pokers do the trick better than the thistle of which the you can be turned in by the County for growing.

[Chief]

Hey karma!!

I was at Home Despot the other day, and at the checkout counter, they are selling packets of seeds marked "California Poppy". Each packet holds about a full measuring cup full of those seeds! The seeds are a bit smaller than mustard seeds, so you can imagine that a cupful is a whole lot of seeds....

I have one California Poppy in my yeard, and it's frickin' HUGE...I cannot imagine why anyone would need that many seeds, other than the State crews who might plant wild flowers in the medians along the highways.

[karma]

Chief, are you sure those were CA poppies?? We have orientale ones this year that are bigger than a dinner plate. We have them in orange, red, pale salmon, deep salmon and my favorite HOT pink!! I'm betting yours got a good drink of the blue stuff you use on you petunias?

[Chief]

positive....California Poppies