ByronB said:You may not know when they show up unless you are ready for them. The sooner you have fed some the better chance of them visiting your feeder all summer. You must simply play the odds.

That's what I've read. If they show up and there's no feeder, they move on (and don't always return). Better too early than too late.

When they first arrive, they're looking for a reliable food source, so if there's nothing around, they will move on. I'm lucky to have native coral honeysuckle growing, so they will show up for that. But the hummingbird feeder(s) will keep them around once the honeysuckle dries up and they will stay all summer. As long as I keep filling the feeders!

Becky we really do not face natural disasters, like you with hurricanes and tornados. Just deal with extreme summer heat and increasingly bad drought issues.

That's bad enough! Sometimes we have severe drought in the summer, too. We haven't had a really bad drought year since around 2010 or so, so we're due for it. We've had at or way above rainfall since then. Then we had those horrible Arkansas river floods in 2018? I think it was.

The nest is finished and Mom has laid her first egg.

Wonderful!

Wow!

Linda, that's a much better spot for her nest, rather than on your mobile. Looking forward to seeing the babies.

Linda - Wow! You are sooooo lucky to have a nest so close to watch! I am totally envious of your first hand experience with a mother and baby hummers! Lucky observer!!!!

Thank all of you for your nice comments. I have been blessed for several years now to have Hummingbirds nesting on the patio. Usually it is in a hanging mobile.

Linda, I was just showing my hubby your hummingbird picture, telling him you have a hummer visiting your patio for many years now. He asked how long they live. I had no idea so looked and found this article that has an account of numerous banded hummingbirds that lived up to 12 years.

Here's the article if your interested. https://www.hummingbirdsplus.o...

Christine for that article. I had no idea they lived that long.

quietyard said: Thank all of you for your nice comments. I have been blessed for several years now to have Hummingbirds nesting on the patio. Usually it is in a hanging mobile.

I wonder why not the mobile this time? Year after year after year, it has been the mobile.

I suspected that they were long lived, because I have a few that have been coming back to my house for 6 years now. And yes, I can tell them apart!

The mobile is still in the same place, Ann. Maybe it is because this tree branch on the patio is closer to the feeder.

I came here to see the early sightings. It is fun to look forward to these visitors.

I put my feeders out a week ago. After the hard freeze, I am lacking some early blooms.

On Tuesday afternoon (March 30th) I saw my first girlies coming to the feeder.

It fascinates me. During the summer I can work around the feeders and they ignore me. These early birds are skittish.

Fun to see them but at 36 degrees this morning I'll bet they are chilly!

Linda exciting to see the first egg.

I saw my first female the other day at my Sarmentosa plant, I did have my camera on me and got a picture, will have to download it. I have lots of blooms for her. I'm going to go ahead and put out my feeder to try and keep her around longer.

sunkissed for the acorn.

beckygardener for the acorn.

This morning there was a second egg in the nest. I could not get a real good picture this time as Mom was really not happy with me hanging over her nest with the camera. She kept flying by my face screeching at me. I took the hint and settled for a lesser quality photo. It is a very windy day here so did not want to stress her anymore by chasing her into that wind to escape me. The problem with the nest being where it is, is it is by the door I go in and out a zillion times a day which always scares her off the nest. Sometimes I crouch real low trying not to be so visible and occasionally she will stay there then but not always. However, she knew I was there when she chose to build the nest so guess she feels fairly safe.