Butterfly Garden Update

My sister's butterfly garden is looking great. Logs with interesting shapes in different locations, some with natural wells used to place seed for the birds, create excitement. Plants expected to grow tall are planted in the rear to create elevation. Her milk weed plants have not yet arrived. She is planning on placing them in large pots she can move into her patio when the caterpillars are ready to transform. Check out our link to The Live Monarch Foundation 2008 on the right side of this posting for some fabulous videos.

Coming at YOU

This close-up is from behind and to the right of the feeder with the sun to the left of the feeder. Since it was a sunny afternoon I was able to push the shutter to 800th of a second to pause those fast wing beats. This brings another point for those of you setting up to photograph your hummers. If you are not able to adjust your shutter speed on your camera, the building of a perch is handy. This will allow you to photograph the hummers that decide to perch and feed, especially since the use of a flash will startle them.

Hand Feeding & Photography

Once your hummers get used to your feeders you will be able to hand feed them. The best thing to do is to find a position that is comfortable for you. Also, if you will have someone else there to photograph your success, they should find a comfortable position. Naturally you will have to keep your movements smooth to keep from startling your hummers. Since the use of a flash will startle them you might want to consider laying a piece of foil paper on you lap to reflect light on to your subject. Your photographer should not try to follow the subject with the camera, but instead pre-focus on the general area of the feeder as the subject will come to that spot. Have fun!

STARTING A BUTTERFLY GARDEN

My sister's preliminary layout of her butterfly garden shows promise. She is planning to have some milkweed for the monarch butterfly. This is an excellent project for the whole family. Visit our link to The Live Monarch Foundation 2008. There you or your kids can adopt a Monarch. Enjoy!

RED CHARMER

We get visits from Hummers and bees and a lovely pair of Cardinals to our patio.
Who is visiting your patio?

ROOM FOR ALL

There is room for all.

The hummingbirds and the bees work together when visiting the flowers. It is no different when they visit the feeders. Diana in San Antonio has placed her four feeders grouped together about 2 feet apart. This allows the hummers and bees to alternate from one feeder to one of the others. If the bees are busy on one feeder the hummers go the next.

IN THE PINK

I love this picture Joshua shared with us. Great shot Joshua.

Wow! Is it blue or is it purple?

Wow! This lovely male has a beautiful blue or purple color on its throat. If you know what it's proper name is, please let us know by clicking on the comments button below. Thank you.

Where to hang?

We have hung these mini hummingbird feeders practically everywhere. As you can see from this picture this one is on a hanging pot with a morning glory plant on our patio. There are a lot of visitors to this feeder and the two pictures from our previous posting were taken at this feeder.