I was just standing on my back porch pulling the yellow leaves off my plumeria when I heard a loud buzzing over my head. I looked up, and there was a male ruby-throat hummer staring at me. I took down my feeder a few days ago because the darn squirrels were hanging off the porch roof and knocking it all over the place, making a mess of the porch. I guess this means I'd better hang it back up now!

yes, Carey, the hummers want the feeder back up. they do the same to me when their feeders are empty, suddenly they are at the back proch buzzing around my head... letting me know. LOL!! `

This month the migrating hummers are staying around longer and they act especially hungry! The last few days, they're all over...they constantly zoom around, going to the Turk's Cap and other flowering plants, or to their feeder and then they spend quite a bit of time hunting small insects also. They especially need the protein from insects to be able to complete the migration. There's more insects now than there was a while back, but they're still not plentiful at all! Put up the feeder! The squirrels here don't bother my hummer feeder. It's suspended on a long wire way below a tree branch and it wouldn't be easy for them to get to. And anyway, those squirrels easily get to the bird feeder in the side yard or to the wildlife feeding area outside the fence. One of my visitors today:

Thanks Linda! Thankfully i still have plenty of blooming Lantana for them to visit, and there's a veritable feast in the mostly empty swimming pool (all sorts of bugs in and out of that). I'll make sure to have the feeder up and full so there isn't a repeat.

nice action picture!

Linda, that is a beautiful shot!

Love the pic, Linda. What's your hummer feeder recipe? I was using 1/3 cup sugar to a cup of water, then switched to 1/4 cup because the 1/3 C. seemed like syrup. The hummers aren't draining the feeders as quickly. I do have flowers blooming that they enjoy, so that could be a factor also.

Sandi, I'm using 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water. Hummers seem to like it!

Thanks...I take a lot of bad shots, then maybe I get lucky and it's good. I use the 1/4 cup sugar to one cup water. That reminds me. I need to clean out the feeder and refill before it gets grungy.

Good to know. I thought maybe I was starving them, since they snubbed the feeders for the flowers.

The proper mix is in fact 1 part sugar to 4 parts water so 1/4c sugar to 1c water is correct. Love the hummers...it is so amazing to see them sit perfectly still on a branch! And as for the tree rats..in my yard not only do they drain the feeders they also EAT them

The hummingbirds have all flown south, but the dang raccoons are still here. We had set the trap behind the fountain last night. No food was in it because the wind was so fierce we figured he wouldn't come. He caught himself. The kicker is he moved the trap at least four feet from behind the fountain to where it is now. How did he do that? Roll it? Before he moved, he chomped on my brugmansias and chewed up the leaf net. The pots behind the trap now are four brugs that I had isolated because they had spider mites. He managed to chomp one of those also. He's going to join his friends at the farm. No, no not that "farm," but the one with the huge fountain at the entrance and the $300K lots for sale.

Pesky raccoons! I had one climb a tree & jump to get the humming bird feeder I had out. He spread sugar syrup everywhere & then ate the feeder out of sheer meanness I think!
Farm sounds good!

We have a small pond and a fountain in the backyard. They've eaten all my water lilies and fish. I only have the little mosquito fish left. They're year 'round pests too. I hadn't had them bother the hummer feeders this summer.

The dogs ran this soaking wet raccoon up a tree after a long rain. I bet he had gotten trapped in the drainage ditch. He would have been much too large for my trap.

good dog!

They're so darn cute to be such evil pests!

Good doogies! But I'm glad the coon retreated. They can be worse than a grizzly bear to tangle with!

I know they are pests but so cute!

I don't even want to add up how much I spent on water lilies that the raccoons ate. I don't have one left.