Springtime always brings about new birth and growth, in plants, animals, and hopefully mankind as well. I was late this Spring in the task of cleaning out the three bluebird boxes we've had up for years, and with the first two of them it was the uneventful opening of a door and pulling out of the old nest to make way for the birds to build a fresh one.
But our third bluebird box held a surprise. When I opened the side flap an early bluebird flew out, nearly scaring me off the eight-foot ladder, and when I carefully slid the small nest out to see if there were any little blue eggs inside, instead I found little bluebirds! Very new little birds, whose nest I carefully pushed back in, then refastened the door. Too late to get rid of the old nest, but this bluebird momma seemed happy enough with her old one.
Birds and blooms are the most obvious signs of the change in seasons, and I always pay attention to when our first ruby throat hummingbirds arrive in April. Nearly every year we'll see a “hummer” by April 15th, and this spring the first little humming buddy showed up last Monday, April 10th, several days early! They fly nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico from Central America, and are understandably hungry when they arrive stateside.
You can attract and feed hummingbirds nearly everywhere, in the city or out in the county side. The first little ruby throat (the only species of hummingbird found east of the Mississippi) I saw here in Tennessee was busy feeding on Mimosa tree blossoms in the summer of 1977 way back when I lived out in the Galen community.
Commercial feeders are inexpensive and often attractive, and sugar water always draws some hungry little birds. The mix is 4 or 5 to 1, water to sugar, and it ought to be replaced weekly, for both appearance and the health of your birds. Never feed hummingbirds with honey, for it is said to kill the little guys-they can't digest it!
And you don't need to add red food coloring, or buy expensive, pre-colored hummingbird feeder mix. The birds are attracted by the sweetness, not the color of the sugar water. In fact, you can use a drop or two of green or purple food coloring in the sugar water, and you'll still get birds coming to your feeder.
My dad always adds a little red food coloring to his sugar water mix, and I've told him he doesn't need to, in order to attract birds. But he told me he knew that--”I'm not adding the red color for the birds, I'm adding it for Me!” he explained. It won't hurt them, so everyone to their own notion on this detail.
I'm fixing to put up a hummingbird feeder on the end of the covered front porch here at the news office, and just for the heck of it I'll add a little orange food coloring to the sugar water- Tennessee Orange for our Tennessee hummingbirds!
Many of us have put up special houses near our own for Purple Martins--Wardean Purdue is an expert on attracting Martins, and he can tell you much more about them than I. But these social insect eaters are both beautiful and helpful, and have been cultivated by humans for our species mutual benefit since pre-historic times.
The American Indians introduced the pilgrim fathers to housing Purple Martins with the traditional hollowed-out gourds strung on lines--many of us still used this simple housing for the Martins today. Mankind has been providing houses for Martins for so long that they no longer have a natural habitat in the wild-they just keep looking until they find suitable housing near humans, and move right in. If you put up Purple Martin houses too far away from your dwelling, the birds won't occupy them. They like people!
Like the canary in a coal mine, our wild birds are a barometer of the health of our natural environment. When our native birds become scarce or disappear, you can bet that we won't be far behind.
So plant your gardens and ornamentals, and enjoy all our wonderful feathered friends this Spring. They are an indicator of what is right with the world, and we should encourage and enjoy what they tell us!
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