| Remember When.... |
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| Members' hummingbird memories and first experiences with these little jewels. |
| I think I was nine years old when the hummingbirds came in my life. I would climb a tree, a flowering crab apple tree just to get close to them. Thinking they were fairies and letting my mind roam that they were indeed fairies. I could sit and watch them for hours and pretend they were my friends. From that day on they were special to me. I thought they had magic. From then on I was hooked, it seemed like I could go anywhere and spot a jewel. I had an eye for them and they seemed to know I was a friend. I remember some kids chasing them trying to catch them with a net and how I beat the dickens out of a boy and told him to leave my birds alone. I was a tom boy. I was thinking back to those days when I was in that crab apple tree for the summer and watching the hummers and then how close they would come about me, like checking me out way back when. How my heart felt and how it races till this day when they do that. Before I even knew what a hummingbird feeder was, I was making my own, and putting out nectar for them. I don't think I did it right back then, but they sure used it often. I would punch holes in plastic bottles and watch them feed on it. My mother had tons of flowers and that helped bring in a lot of hummingbirds. We lived in South Carolina and it was a haven for hummers. I have never seen so many hummingbirds as we had back in my childhood, but I was blessed with many after I planted flowers of their liking. Give me a hummingbird and you have feed me for a lifetime.... Von (OH) |
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| My first experience with a real hummingbird was in August of 1986. I had a new baby early in July and was feeling the blues slightly that one day. My youngest child was slightly fussy and it was very hot that day. I also had a 2 year old and a 8 year old, who were quiet watching the TV cartoons. I changed the baby and fed her. Then, I decided to walk back and forth in my living room holding her. I thought maybe rocking her slowly would soothe her. I stopped in front of the window and said to the baby(Amber),"Do you see Mommy's pretty flowers on the bush?" I turned so the baby's face could look at these hot pink Rose of Sharon flowers. I look back at the flowers and then at the baby. She started to coo and make a baby sound. I smiled and said "Yes, they are very pretty just like you." Together we both looked toward the flowers when I saw my first female ruby throat hummingbird at the flowers. She went to almost each one and I froze standing there watching. I do not know how long I watched her visiting those flowers but when I looked down at my daughter, she was asleep and had a little smile on her face. I looked back at the window to see a hummingbird just staring back at me and then she flew away. I will never forget that hummingbird. I named her Magic. Once in awhile even today, I think of her and see other females and wonder if they are her daughter. I get goosebumps after I tell this story to people. I feel the hummingbird is a special gift from up above. Vicki (NJ) |
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| I don't remember exactly when I first saw a hummingbird but I do remember seeing one at a customer of mine's house and thinking what a tiny little bird. It was the size of a large bug, but with feathers. Sometime after that I was at Walmart and saw hummingbird feeders for sale. I had seed birdfeeders so I thought I would add a hummingbird feeder to them and see if any would come to my feeder. Besides this one came with a free package of food. Of course back then I thought hummingbirds would feed like other birds; you put it out and a flock would come eat at it. I also didn't know that the juice should be changed regularly. So I red the directions on the food package and filled the feeder to the top and hung it from the carport in the bright hot summer sun and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. I was so discouraged that not one single hummingbird came to my feeder after the first month and that except for a little evaporation and what little the wasps and bees had been able to drink, my feeder was still full of the original mixture...although it was getting some kind of black stuff floating in it. I called my customer and asked her some questions and learned that the nectar needed to be replaced weekly even if it hadn't been drank. She suggested that I mix up half a package and only fill my feeder from a quarter to a half full and stored the remainder in the refrigerator. So I dumped the feeder and bleached it out as she had suggested. I bought another package of nectar mix and mixed only half of it. Then filled the feeder only a quarter full and hung it back out. I repeated this routine weekly for several weeks when one morning, my husband came in and told me that my hummingbird sure must like the food in that feeder. He had been out working in the yard and told me that the hummer had visited the feeder many times. Well of course it wasn't out there when I looked and only late that afternoon while we were grilling did I get the opportunity to look up and see it at my feeder. I was hooked then. I had to tell everyone about my hummingbird. Even my parents went out and bought a feeder and put one up. We bought some little paperback books on hummingbirds and I read them from cover to cover, learning all I could, which looking back wasn't much and wasn't all fact either. Except for a few years when I felt that it would be better not to encourage hummingbirds due to several having died trapped in my screened porch and the predatory outside cats that we owned, I have faithfully filled my feeders for those little jewels every year for the last 15 years. Lizz (AR) |
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| I knew there were hummers when I was a child, but I do not remember a specific first sight of one. I began to see hummers in my yard once I started gardening in the mid 90s and my first close encounter with a hummer was the time one flew right up to my face and stared at me. After that encounter, I deliberately planted more shrubs and flowers with hummers in mind. As for how hummers make me feel? At the sight of a hummer, I stop whatever I am doing, my heart beats a little faster, I smile and freeze. They are tiny, beautiful, charming, belligerent, perfect little dynamos. Marcia (PA) |
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| The first time I attracted hummingbirds to my yard was the late spring on 2003. I had been talking with Misty about hummingbirds and she told me about the club and what all I needed to do. I was so excited. I had also been reading reports from NVBIRD and someone over the hill from me had hummingbirds so I thought...okay they are close, I will give it a try. I waited and waited. Then one night as I was doing dishes I saw my first hummingbird. It was May 22 at 541pm and again at 656pm. The first one I started jumping up and down saying I have a hummer...my husband thought I was nuts. I called Misty and told her...I was so excited. They were female black chinned hummingbirds. Later that summer I had a male rufous that chased everything away from the feeders. I now have a special area in my backyard that is for hummers. My children and grandchildren know that this is my special spot and they all enjoy looking at the hummers come to feed. Melody (Reno NV) |