Hepatica, April 7

The newly planted Hepatica are doing well.  The one from previous years is not yet in bloom, but it gets a lot of shade.

Starting my 2014 garden (native plant) chronicle

In 2011, I made a web site for my backyard garden, which I've developed with native plants to create bird and butterfly habitat.  Each week or so from April through November, I posted pictures and commentary on what was new in the garden.  You can see those web pages here:

http://home.ptd.net/~bcmalt/garden/april.html 

In 2012 and 2013, I didn't do any updates, mainly because my spare time was taken up with working on the revised edition of Birds of the Lehigh Valley and Vicinity.  (Now taking orders!  All proceeds benefit educational activities of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, a non-profit organization.  See http://tinyurl.com/bolvv-2nd  for ordering info.  )  

Now that the book is off to press, I'm going to try to do some 2014 updates throughout the growing season.

Here's the first!  The weekend of March 15, I was in Boston for a conference and had a chance to spend a few hours at the Boston Flower Show.  I bought several native plants there, bareroot.  The seller told me to keep them for a week in the fridge and then plant them.  I missed the window of opportunity when it was nice on Saturday the 22nd, so I decided to wait another week.  Then it was so rainy this weekend I thought I'd wait some more.  But I took a look at the bag in the fridge, and I found that the Hepaticas were putting out shoots and even some blossoms!!!  in the fridge, in the dark - and, as it turned out, with slightly frozen roots. That goes to show you what these early spring bloomers can handle. I went out and planted them in the cold, windy rain. Pretty miserable, but hoping it gives them a smooth transition to the warmer temps arriving soon.

 

The story of the RUHU visit, 2013

Back in late January, after my Rufous Hummingbird left town, I made up a short Powerpoint slide about her visit show to share with some friends. Belatedly, I am posting the picture sequence from the slide show here.  (As far as I can tell, it isn't possible to link a .ppt file to the blog post.)

 

Dark Red-tailed Hawk in Alburtis, PA

Joe Zajacek, Linda Freedman, and I saw an unusual Red-tailed Hawk near Smith Lane in Alburtis on Sunday (1/4/13).  We also saw the same bird there last February.  It looks  similar to the dark western Red-tails pictured in field guides.  It was unlike a Harlan's in that it had a reddish tail. The stars on the map below indicate roughly where we saw it.

Ruhu video December 28

In commemoration of Ruhu's apparent departure for a warmer place, literally or metaphorically, here is some video I shot of her feeding on December 28.

It was shot through two panes of glass with a little pocket point-and-shoot, and the lighting is bad because of the heat lamp above her.  Still, I like her activity and how her irridescent throat flecks show up. It was shot at about 4:40 in the afternoon, her second-to-last feeding of the day, with temp at 50 degrees.

heated hummer feeders

Here is my set-up with a 150-watt outdoor incandescent flood light.  It kept the nectar liquid down to 3 degrees last night.

I tried configurations with the reflector clamped to the post in various ways, but it tended to slide out of position.  Letting it just hang straight down over the feeder worked best.

It is also taped to the metal "twig" that the feeder is hanging from - otherwise, in the wind, it tended to blow out of position.  If it shifts out of alignment with the nectar, the nectar can still freeze up.

Note electrical tape closing up the vent holes on the reflector and around where the cord enters, to keep rain out. This was on advice I received from Scott Weidensaul/Bob Sargeant.  These hoods are not meant for outdoor use. 

 

Below is the heated feeder I ordered from http://www.hummersheateddelight.com/

It operates with only a 6-watt nightlight bulb inside the black base. 

In temps of around 14 degrees yesterday, the center of the liquid stayed unfrozen but much of it froze up.  (In the photo above, there wasn't a lot of nectar in it, but I later added more and it still was partially freezing up.)

Important: during and after the snowstorm itself, while snow was blowing around, the tops of the ports tended to get coated with ice and needed to be opened up often, even when the nectar inside was liquid enough.  (I periodically check the ports of the satellite with heat lamp, too, because even though I don't think they ever iced up, in slightly warmer weather it seemed they occasionally got clogged with gooey evaporated sugar water.)

To help the heated feeder nectar retain the heat, I wrapped the tank with pipe foam insulation (below).

This worked well and the nectar was unfrozen even after last's nights temps of 3 degrees.  The downside is that it isn't possible to see how much nectar is left without taking it off.  (However, for one bird, even half a cup of nectar lasts a long time.)

Before I got that feeder, I was using a tube feeder wapped with a 50-light string of incandescent mini-Christmas lights (below).  It worked pretty well, though it wasn't tested in temps as extreme as last night. 

 It is crucial to have the lights wrapped thoroughly around the ports and base.  Otherwise, the upper nectar stayed liquid but the part accessible to the bird was frozen.

Mary Ziegler also sent me the link below to a picture of another type of arrangement, a satellite feeder set into a heated dog dish.  You'd have to have the dish/feeder up somewhere accessible to the hummer and not to ground-level predators. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heidiware/11226105994/in/photostream/

One other observation:  In warmer weather (40s and up), it is a good idea to not only turn off whatever electrical device is on the feeder, but physically separate its cord from the extension cord that runs down to the ground.  Once I left the cords connected in temps in the 40s and found ants crawling around the nectar when I refilled.  I read somewhere that hummers don't mind bees but they won't feed with ants present. (Besides, the ants were then running around my counter.)

And another...I learned a lesson the hard way...don't try to adjust any heat lamps without turning the lamp off and letting it cool down. The filament is very fragile and I ruined one bulb by moving it when hot. 

A general comment about the different styles of hummer feeders.  In the end, for general purposes (independent of heating) my vote goes to the satellite style Perky Pet shown in the very first photo with the heat light on it.  The tubular feeders can slosh sugar water out as you carry them to the post after filling, as you try to get the hook engaged, and when the wind blows hard.  You end up with a sticky mess on your floor, the back steps, or wherever. And on really windy days, the nectar level can plummet when you thought it was full. Another advantage of the satellite over the tube is that the hummers will sit on the perch, letting you get a better look. At the tubes, they are always hovering. (However, I did not like the design of the satellite used in the heated feeder pictured above because once the nectar falls below the level of the red satellite lid, you can't see how much is left. Also, that one was not as easy to clean.)