Not a peony and not my picture but I thought I'd share it, anyway! One of my old bosses just shared this on Facebook, I asked if I could pass it on as well. I've never even managed to see a hummingbird nest before, much less get close enough to take a pic! Chuck said that he was trimming back shrubs, retired to Arizona, and had mother bird buzzing him. Luckily he stopped and looked instead of just cutting away more....he said there were 2 eggs in the nest.

Wow, that's fascinating!

Their nests are so tiny and hidden pretty well. We had one once in our eucalyptus tree in our front yard.

Well isn't this nice! I have lots of hummingbirds, but have never spotted a nest!!

This is a great map to watch the hummingbird migration North. They have already reached Florida!

http://www.hummingbirds.net/ma...

We get them here starting early June, normally hear them before spotting them. I get the feeders out as soon as I hear them buzzing around since we don't have much flowering that early. I've never been quick enough to get a good pic and I've certainly never seen a nest IRL, they use a huge pine behind the house so I assume they nest there. Any nests would be at least 20' off the ground, I'm not brave enough to try to look!

The hummingbirds nest in our cedar trees. We occasionally find a nest on the ground that the wind has dislodged . We put out 6 feeders for our little feathered friends Mrs makes her own feed with just sugar and water. No chemicals or dyes added.

Ohhhh. How cute. Tiny little birds must have tiny little nests and eggs. Wonder if they are like our Stellars Jays who always make their nests in evergreens. We had one in our pine tree and saw the babies after they hatched and left the nest. There were three sitting on our fence with Mama not far away giving me heck for being within 20'

Are the Stellars Jays the big blue jays with the black markings and crest? We get those here as well, Mary! Really pretty birds but with a voice only a mother could love--real screechers.

Mac, I do the same thing--just a mix of sugar and hot water to melt it. I hang feeders from the gutter on the covered part of our deck plus a couple out front on hooks. Start out with a single one front and back and end up with 6-8 in the back and 3 in the front before the season's done. I don't fill them completely, though, and empty them once a week so they don't start growing stuff. They're not really very nice birds though, are they? Lucky for them they're so small and pretty!

Hi Liz. We hang most of our feeder on shepherd's crooks in both front and back yard. We have one right outside the kitchen window, under the roof overhang and one in front off the living room window. We have them scattered around since it always seems there's one "guard bird" that wants control of every feeder within it's view. We sometimes refill ours 3-6 times per day and that's probably at least a pint every refill. Mrs runs half of them through the dishwasher every night. I don't know that they're not nice birds but they're always competing for the feeders. Sometimes we have 3 or 4 feeding at once. We like to watch them though.

I only say that they're not nice because they dive bomb me whenever I get too close to their favorite flowers! They don't bother me filling the feeders in the back but will in the front, they don't come into the covered part of the deck often, only when they're chasing each other. The females aren't nearly as aggressive, I've seen several of them sitting and drinking from the same feeder, the guys aren't into sharing, though.

I don't think we get as many as you must, I've had feeders empty after several days but never had to refill one twice in a day! I normally only put 2-3 cups of mix in each feeder as I hate to waste it. I normally put out additional feeders as I see more birds, more feeders not filled as much seems to work well. Oh, and I can't clean the windows in the back of my house during hummingbird season--the first year I had to many tragedies where they ran into the windows and died. It's sickening when you hear a thunk, go to the window and see one of them lying there....I have dusty windows now all summer but haven't had one die since I put off cleaning until the fall.

We don't get dive-bombed for some reason. We sit on the deck and they're feeding right above out heads. We put the our feeders out gradually too, as needed. I would guess, overall, we may get 20 to 30 birds at various times. We always hate to see them leave because we know winter is on the way.

I enjoy the hummingbirds so much. Last year the returned several days earlier than in previous year. Generally when the red buckeye, Carolina jessamine, and coral honeysuckle start blooming you will find them. I put out 5-6 feeders and have to fill them everyday. You can't let any kind of mold form and must only use cane sugar solution. Those red solutions cause health problems.

I love the red buckeye, Lg. Tried to grow it here but it didn't make it through the winter. My next garden will have it, though! My honeysuckle is growing but is incredibly slow to increase here, it's barely to the top of the 4' fence it's growing on and has barely bushed out at all after 3 years in the ground. That stuff grew so fast in TX that it resembled Jack's beanstalk!

I've never used the red solution although my first feeder came with it. Luckily I bought it at a nursery and the lady working checkout warned me about it and told me what to use instead. The sugar water mix is just so easy I don't know why anyone would want to bother with anything else.

Supposedly, the reason for the red color is that hummingbirds are attracted to it. I guess their thinking is that the reservoir full of red stuff is an additional attractant. I haven't figured why they pass off that nasty stuff that's not good for the birds though. The hummingbirds are more than happy with clear water and sugar.

This is all very interesting. I have never seen a hummingbird in my garden. Do you have to grow special plants or flowers to attract them?

We do not. We just put out feeders. When they migrate north, they find us and stay. I'm sure that it wouldn't hurt to plant things that attract them, but I guess ours stay due to a ready supply of food.

Nice pic of the nest Liz!

I agree, the hummers like a simple nectar made with 1 cup sugar dissolved in 4 cups of water.

Karen, you should see hummers in your area, here's the 2016 migration map. I would put out a few feeders around the time they're expected in your area.

http://www.hummingbirdcentral....

Here's a plant list, and they love cannas.

To my knowledge, no one in our neighborhood grows any hummingbird attractants. One of our neighbors puts out 1 feeder, usually with the red glop in it, and gets 2 or 3 birds, including ones from our yard. Another puts out 2 or 3 feeders, then laughingly complains that we're stealing all their birds.

Mac, maybe your garden has more food appealing to the hummingbirds.

Annette! That is very helpful information. I like to attract some hummingbirds to my garden. We get a lot bluejays and cardinals in spring but no hummingbirds.

You're welcome Karen, the hummers are adorable! You can find inexpensive feeders at Lowe's or HD, I'm the crazy person that gets the fancy feeders from the Wild Birds store. I also think of the feeders as garden bling/decor.