The Sun is Killing Me: First Hummingbird of 2010 Season

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

First Hummingbird of 2010 Season

Just a note that I spotted the first hummingbird of the 2010 season in my garden today - a black-chinned hummingbird.

Here's a pic. He kept flying away when I opened the door, so this is a through-the-window shot:

4 comments:

Caroline said...: Neat! Thank you for reminding me to fill and hang my feeders.; March 16, 2010 at 8:53 PM
Rock rose said...: Wow, he's an early bird. I don't think I have anything for him to eat in my garden. I see you have those little hoop petticoats flowering. They are so pretty. I remember now that I was planning to get some of those this year- next time. Happy spring.; March 17, 2010 at 3:15 AM
Sarah said...: Thanks for posting this! I put out my feeder last week but assumed it was probably too early to see any hummers. Now I know they're at least in the area!; March 17, 2010 at 7:39 AM
Lee17 said...: You all are quite welcome! I just put those feeders up about a week and a half before this guy arrived as last year the first hummer arrived on March 7th.; March 19, 2010 at 7:43 PM

Zone What?

Seattle to Olympia is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8.

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)

Austin is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8-9

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)
Zone 9: -7 to -1 C (20 to 30 F)

The USDA map was updated this year - 2012. Some zones have shifted from the previous version.

See the current map here:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Although both Austin and Seattle are in similiar zone hardiness, their climates could not be more different! Temps top out in the 80's in the summer in Seattle, where in Austin they can top 110 and stay in the 100's for months on end. The same plants that enjoy the Seattle maritime climate will fry in a second in the semi-desert that is Central Texas.

Learn about the heat zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

Check out the AHS Heat Zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/05_heat_map.pdf

Past Garden Quotes of the Month

"The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."-- Henry Ellacombe
"The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession." -- Phyllis McGinley
"The way of cultivation is not easy. He who plants a garden plants happiness." --Chinese Proverb
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb
'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.' - Albert Einstein
"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." ~Orson Scott Card
"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden." ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666
"A weed is but an unloved flower." ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
"Last night, there came a frost, which has done great damage to my garden.... It is sad that Nature will play such tricks on us poor mortals, inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her, and then, when we are entirely within her power, striking us to the heart." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebookse
"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination." ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897 (Thanks, Jessica)
"When one of my plants dies, I die a little inside, too." ~Linda Solegato
"In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death." ~Sam Llewelyn
"Plant carrots in January and you'll never have to eat carrots." ~Author Unknown