Sharing Nature's Garden Archives | Page 45 of 124

Hummingbirds keeping warm in cold front …

Sunday brought an unexpected late spring cold front into Central Texas. With it came high winds and even a little (emphasis – little) rain.

As you might expect, this sent the hummingbirds into overdrive – furiously flying about – trying to keep their tiny bodies warm.

We have two feeders around the corner from one another outside our breakfast room and enjoy watching them much of the year.

Yesterday’s show was the best I’ve seen to date. At one point, I was watching 5 of them buzzing about the feeders and filling up on liquid energy. There were 3 at the feeder at the right corner window and two at the feeder at the left corner window. Almost made my eyes cross to watch them zoom back and forth.

But I was most intrigued that several of them were also taking breaks in the trees and on my Mountain Yucca. One male Ruby-throated hummingbird lit on the yucca several times — sitting very still and puffing up his tiny feathers to keep out the cold. Unfazed my my photography — focused on finding warmth. This feeder is protected on 3 sides – by the house and a wooden fence – and provided a nice wind break for him.

His very metallic green back provided a great contrast against the blue yucca and the blue pot in the first photo. Then later, he showed me his colorful neck several times as he breathed in and out.

With a low of 48 degrees this morning, the hummingbirds are back at the feeders. Fortunately for them, the weather is predicted to warm back up today. The feeders are providing some welcome nectar now, but everyday new hummingbird friendly plants are blooming in my garden. Most of my perennials attract hummingbirds, butterflies and bees, so I’m sure we will be enjoying their antics until next winter.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:07-05:00May 3rd, 2011|bird feeders, Blog, hummingbird, Mountain Yucca, nectar, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Irises blooming in the Easter garden

A few weeks ago, I couldn’t stop complaining about the lack of blooms on my various irises.

It seemed that everywhere I looked my garden blogging friends were showing off their frilly friends.

And I was having a serious case of bloom envy.

Not to mention the nagging doubts about my gardening ability.

Should I be doing something different?

Did I need to fertilize them?

Did I plant them in the wrong places?

Should they be divided (even those they are all relatively new and small clumps)?

But a few days ago, I was ecstatic to discover several of my irises blooming away.

This pale lavender iris is a passalong from Pam at Digging — she calls it Shoshona’s Iris. I love the beautiful color.

Then the interesting gold and brown iris bloomed the next day.

While it’s planted close to my Louisiana Iris ‘Professor Neil,’ which is a deep maroon with gold, they weren’t both blooming at the same time this week.

Maybe I can ask them to do that for me when the next ones bloom!

Happy Easter!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:24-06:00April 23rd, 2011|Blog, Easter, iris, irises, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Plenty of birdhouses for nesting birds

This year we have three bird nests that I know of.

But there could be many more in the garden where birds are sneaking in and out and hiding from me.

But even with all these beautiful and inviting homes, the swallows are nesting under the tall rock front porch ceiling again. Mama wren is nesting in the sombrero hanging in the garage — shown in my previous post here.

I’m always nervous about cleaning the houses out because the experts at Wild Birds Unlimited tell me that birds can be nesting in them at any time of the year.

This one was a gift from my parents for Christmas.
This one is in the front walkway bed on a stick so it’s the least likely to have inhabitants.
My converted gourd has seen better days — but it was too cute when I first got it (especially since I didn’t have to hollow out the gourd myself!)
Ok, this isn’t a birdhouse, but it is a butterfly house and it’s cute, so it made this cut.
This is for the particularly patriotic birds.
And this is the townhouse the Titmice are squatting in right now.
Not sure if there is anyone in this one — but it’s probably my favorite.

Might be a little loud for the birds!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:08-05:00April 23rd, 2011|baby birds, bird house, bird nest, Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Eggs in the bird nest

Count them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven speckled little Carolina wren eggs. Sitting in a tree…wait, no, sitting in a …hat!

We’re had a wren flying in and out of the garage now for weeks. We tried to keep her from making the nest, but now that we’ve discovered it, we’re keeping the garage open so she can stay with her eggs.

This is an old Sombrero left over from a fiesta-themed summer party. Imagine my surprise to find that it’s become a stylish condo for Mrs. Wren.

Her cousin was nesting in the garage last spring — here she’s in a lovely blue and white porcelain flower pot. Sadly, opening and closing of the garage door before we knew she was there kept her from the nest too long and there were no babies last spring.

I’m hoping we found the hat nest in time this year.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:08-05:00April 22nd, 2011|baby birds, bird house, Blog, eggs, nest, Sharing Nature's Garden, wrens|0 Comments

Babies in the nest!

Mrs. Titmouse has been seen sneaking into this lovely birdhouse town home for a while. But I couldn’t tell if she was just going to dinner and going back to sit on her eggs, or if there were babies in there. I tried to peer in there when she was gone, but it’s quite dark in there and the babies are a long way down since it’s a two-story!
Then yesterday when she flew to the nest, I heard the magical, musical “chiro, chirp, chirp” of babies when she landed on the doorstep. This morning I perched in the woods to try to get a picture of her going in the nest. She was onto me though. She landed up in the tree above me and cackled at me – fussing loudly about my intrusion.
But I stood very still and waiting until she felt more at ease, and sure enough, she ventured down. She perched on the hook first, before she slipped into the nest to bring breakfast tacos (ok, that may be a stretch!) to her babies.

It has to be a good day after that, doesn’t it?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-09-14T17:25:23-05:00April 13th, 2011|baby birds, bird house, Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, spring|0 Comments

Pretty purples are my passion…

My garden is awakening.

Warm days have coaxed many plants into beautiful blooms.

Among the best performers in the garden right now are the purple plants.

Can you tell I have a passion for purple?

Many of my favorites are salvias.

Did you know that there are more than 900 species of salvias in the world? How amazing.

I’m lucky to have a nice collection of them in my garden. Indigo spires, Mystic Spires, Mesa, May Night and several more, but I’d have to go digging through previous posts because they are unusual and I don’t have them committed to memory