Hummer heaven

My sister had bought an earth home on three barren acres on a bluff overlooking the river. With thousands of seedlings from the forestry dept, and anywhere she could get flowering trees and shrubs, she went to work. Carrying 5 gal buckets up and down the hills in drought weather to save the trees. She now has an animal sanctuary of her own. With hummers that get thick enough to form dark clouds and the sound of their wings reaching unheard of volume.Also abundant are butterflys, rabbits and herps that you can find anytime you walk out the door. Several bluetail skinks have taken to living on the porch. I was scaring the hummers since I was strange, but a few let me takephotos at the feeders.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1189404216

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1189404262

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1189404290

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1189404319
Hope you enjoy!

Wow! That's really awesome! Sounds like a tremendous amount of work paid off with a beautiful sanctuary!

(What is an "earth home?" Sounds interesing!)

An earth home is one that has 3 sides of the house underground. My parents have one, and from the front you can't even tell that the sides and back are buried.

There are usually concrete retaining walls that come off the front side to keep the dirt in place. On theirs the walls are painted the same color as the siding... I've had friends over that didn't even know it was an earth home until they noticed the lack of windows on the other sides! :)

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Originally Posted by Swingline0.0.1

An earth home is one that has 3 sides of the house underground. My parents have one, and from the front you can't even tell that the sides and back are buried.

There are usually concrete retaining walls that come off the front side to keep the dirt in place. On theirs the walls are painted the same color as the siding... I've had friends over that didn't even know it was an earth home until they noticed the lack of windows on the other sides! :)

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What's nice is if you have a power outage in extremes of weather the earth acts as an insulator and the temp stays comfortable for days as long as windows aren't opened. Also excellent sleeping since there are no windows in the back it is pitch black once you shut the bedroom doors. The dogs love to lay on the roof to sun on cool days. They also use the roof for a lookout point.
With the trees now it is impossible to see her home unless you come all the way up the drive.

I figured it was probably something like that. It sounds really awesome!

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Originally Posted by JLC

I figured it was probably something like that. It sounds really awesome!

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It's an experience! I have never in my life seen more than 2 or 3 hummers till my sister started drawing them in. She feeds now, so I was concerned what would happen to them when she dies. She has taken the time to plant a huge number of flowering trees and shrubs that are coming up now. It was so impressive we sat for the longest time staring. One hummer came up to my face and just hovered there looking at me!:eek:

I LOVE hummingbirds. Such noisy, squeaky little things. Those little guys seem rather tolerant of each other. Do they get along better with each other since there is such an abundance of feeders?

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

I LOVE hummingbirds. Such noisy, squeaky little things. Those little guys seem rather tolerant of each other. Do they get along better with each other since there is such an abundance of feeders?

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Not really, they were having tiny little squabbles the entire time they were feeding.

Dave Barker has a similar setup on his patio that surrounds much of his house. The hummers weren't swarming the day I was there, but he told stories that sound much like what you've described, Nancy. Still there were a lot of them. Dave said it took him and Tracy a couple of years to train the hummers to not fight with each other because they are very territorial little beasties. They started out with the feeders spread very far apart for different hummer families to establish themselves at...then very gradually moved them closer and closer until they were much like the ones in your pictures. After so many generations of hummers feeding there, they now rarely fight over them and many different species congregate peacefully. It's all so fascinating and I would LOVE to be able to sit and observe such behavior on a daily basis!


Once, while at the Desert Museum in Tucson...I was in their Hummingbird aviary and one particularly people-friendly little momma landed right on my arm. It was astonishing to see her sitting there and yet not feel a thing because she was virtually weightless. One of my favorite "nature-memories!"

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Originally Posted by Blu Mongoose

She feeds now, so I was concerned what would happen to them when she dies. She has taken the time to plant a huge number of flowering trees and shrubs that are coming up now.

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Honeysuckle, honeysuckle and more honeysuckle....

I have a fence row in front of my house full of honeysuckle and the hummingbirds return every year just for this tasty treat.