Around the Garden

Sunday, 17 Aug 08 (posted about 5 months ago) Sunny 26°C / 79°F Very Happy

I can finally feel like it’s gardening time.

By that, I mean I can finally see the end result, the fruiting and the ripening is happening hard and fast now. All the peppers, tomatoes, beans, and tomatillos are looking just about ready for picking. Even the delicata squash, which hasn’t had the easiest summer, gave me my first female bloom yesterday, which hopefully will start to actually set fruit now and not just fall off in a horrible let-down of dead blossoms.

I was even graced with the presence of a very vain hummingbird yesterday.

See, I have a great tall bee balm plant right in the middle of my garden. This is placed there to, of course, bring in all sorts of bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and other beneficial insects to do all the hard work of pollinating my plants for me.

Little did I know that hummingbirds also quite adore this particular plant, and I see hummingbirds several times a week since I planted it.

This little guy yesterday, who at first I thought was an extremely large bee as I caught it out of the corner of my eye, sat right down on a bee balm stalk, hardly making it shudder since it’s such a small light bird. He let me get right up to him to take a good look.

I decided to go in and get the camera, thinking upon my return he’d had flittered away to find more dinner. Not the case, as when I came back there he was, in the exact same spot looking at me.

He let me get very close to snap off a few frames, he then lifted up, and started eating from the bee balm (whose blooms are the perfect shape for hummingbird beaks). Finished, he sat right back down where he was, but within 10 seconds was off, and in the lilac tree, up so high I could barely see him (it’s a very old lilac).

I have never seen a hummingbird, not only so docile, but stationary. In fact, besides urban pigeons and seagulls that will come right up to you and steal your lunch, I’ve never seen a bird at all be so calm around humans. It was like he was showing off.

That’s what I love about gardening, little moments like that. And although I have yet to live my dream of having frogs visit the garden (there’s an old unused reservoir out back of my house where I think they’re all very contented to stay), the hummingbird came very close to that dream.

My suggestion to anybody who has those hummingbird feeders, don’t bother, just get a few big ass bee balm plants, and you’ll have more hummingbirds than you know what to do with.

Want to comment?

Cmagnus wrote:
Amazing humming bird pictures.

Posted on 18 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Nax wrote:
I keep trying to wrap my brain around the scale. Assuming that your bee balm is no more than 2" or so across, that is one tiny bird.

Posted on 18 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Verthandei wrote:
How cool! Do you know what species it is? My guess would be a female black-chinned, except they have long bills (longer than this I would have thought). Perhaps a juvenile female broad-tailed? Tail looks longer than the wings, and buff sides, straight, short(ish) bill. They also have spotted grey throat, It’s too bad we can’t see the tail fanned (that would give a lot of info). I think you are somewhat outside the “normal” range of broad-tailed, but not excessively so, and what with climate change and all… (Could maybe also be a female calliope? The only thing is the tail looks too long, though maybe it depends on posture…)

(You can only grow bee balm if you have room for it, LOL! I sadly don’t, though I am still trying (mine is teeny tiny still though).)

PS Beautiful photos, by the way… well done! :)

Posted on 18 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Ceae wrote:
Beautiful pictures Kelly! I want hummingbirds, so I guess I better add BABB (big ass bee balm) to my wishlist … and that’s what I’ll call it too ;)

Posted on 18 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Rainymountain wrote:
We had lots of hummingbirds in the Spring but they seem to have disappeared during the summer and this year I haven’t seen any on my crocosmia or the beebalm/monarda. I think that they may go higher up to nest and there are probably plenty of alpine flowers up there too.

Posted on 18 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Kelly wrote:
Nax – you’re pretty much right, it was about only 2", maybe a little smaller.

Verthandei – thanks for the tip! I also had somebody say it might be a female ruby-throated hummingbird too. My friend has the Audubon book for this region, I really should check with her too!

Posted on 19 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Verthandei wrote:
Hm… I think of ruby-throated females as having a fairly dark “stripe” behind the eye (even the juveniles) that yours doesn’t seem to have, although the light or angle could just be wrong. (I used to live where all we had were rubys.) The light is so crucial in the way the colors look! Have you seen male rubys around the garden? They would be hard to miss. (Or any other species for that matter?) In my humble opinion the best field guide for North America is the Sibley Guide (the original version). :)

Added: I just read that hybridization in hummingbirds occurs with surprising frequency, which can confuse the issue further. :)

Posted on 19 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)
Happibun wrote:
Gorgeous!

Posted on 22 Aug 08 (about 5 months ago)