Dear $$firstname$$,

Greetings from Birds & Blooms magazine! This month, you’ll find some delightful birding stories, including a real Humdinger about hummingbirds. You can also read about Dizzy Pigeons and extend your patriotism beyond the Fourth of July with the photos shared in the “Picture This” segment.

Remember to share this newsletter with your friends who enjoy birding and gardening. If this newsletter was sent to you, sign up today and receive your own monthly Birds & Blooms e-mail.

For more backyard fun, check out www.birdsandblooms.com and www.backyardlivingmagazine.com. You can also get more practical gardening ideas by signing up for the NEW monthly Garden Club newsletter.

• READ ON TO DISCOVER...
• We Got it Covered
• High-Flying Flag
• Suckers on Crape Myrtles
• Enjoy More Gardening Tips
• Dizzy Pigeons
• Summer Cooldown
• Yellowing Clematis
• Picture This
• Humdingers

We Got it Covered

"FEEDING the wild birds in our area is one of my husband’s favorite pastimes," shares Mrs. H.S. North of Coboconk, Ontario. "One year, after many days of heavy rain, it became increasingly difficult to keep the birdseed dry. So he shortened the handle of an old umbrella, opened it up and attached it to the top of the feeder. It covered the tray perfectly and sat high enough for birds of all sizes to perch below it."

At first, they were wary of this new addition to their feeding station. After a few days, they were all crowding under the umbrella, happily eating dry seed while the rains came down.

The umbrella is great in winter and summer, too. During ice and snowstorms or extremely hot days, the birds stay protected from the elements.

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High-Flying Flag

"TO SHOW my patriotism, I proudly attached a flag to my car so everyone can see it when I drive," says Joseph Schubert of Voorhees, New Jersey. "When my wife and I visited my daughter and her family in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the flag flew higher than we ever thought it would.

"Her house borders the fourth hole of a golf course. One day, as my wife was taking our grandchildren for a walk, she shouted, ‘Joe, you just lost the flag from your car!’

"A mourning dove had snatched the flag from its staff, and as I watched from the deck, it flew with it in its bill over the golf course. I can only imagine what the golfers thought when they saw a patriotic dove fly overhead."

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Suckers on Crape Myrtles

MANY VARIETIES of crape myrtle produce suckers. As you may find, pruning out the suckers is not a permanent solution. Tree care professionals and researchers have found slightly longer lasting results with sprout inhibitors like Tre-Hold. You can try this or other sprout inhibiting products that contain the growth regulator NAA (naphthaleneacetic acid). Unfortunately this is not a permanent solution, but it may reduce sprouting. As always, carefully read and follow all label directions.

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Enjoy More Gardening Tips

Delivered monthly, the Garden Club E-mail newsletter brings you even more ideas and tips for you to try in your yard, including:

• Simple ideas for growing the most colorful gardens in the neighborhood…
• Yard Smarts guaranteed to work in your backyard…
• Backyard project ideas and decor you’ll want to make…
• The funniest backyard blunders to brighten your day…
• Plus, we’ll keep you posted on special features and offers available only to Garden Club members.

Click here and sign up today for your Free monthly Garden Club newsletter.

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Dizzy Pigeons

WHEN MY HUSBAND and I eat at our dining room table, we enjoy a lovely view of our neighbor’s tubular bird feeder. It’s built for smaller birds, like finches, but the local pigeons frequently try their best to get food from it, too.

Often, an oversized bird will sit on a small perch, flapping its wings as it tries to keep its balance. This in turn makes the feeder go round and round, until the bird finally flies off when it gets dizzy.

The feeder unwinds until the next pigeon comes along and tries the same stunt again. What fun to watch! —Lucia Johnson, Massena, New York

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Summer Cooldown

LAST JULY when the temperature soared to 106°, Marcia Todd from Indian Valley, Idaho noticed that baby tree swallows—still too young to fly—were suffering from the intense heat in a birdhouse near her porch. She knew she had to do something and started spraying the nest box with a garden hose to cool it.

"My husband, Dan, came up with a clever idea," says Marcia. "He built a lumber tripod to hold the hose and sprinkler head so the cooling water would cascade over the top of the birdhouse. "It took awhile for the parents to figure out how to fly through the spray to feed their babies. (It was comical to watch.) But before we knew it, they became pros at it.

"For an entire week, we let the water run until the daytime temperatures dropped out of the 90s. By then, the babies had learned to stick their heads out of the entrance hole and catch beads of water that trickled down the sides of the house. "The parents also seemed to appreciate the refreshing coolness as they lingered on the shelf attached to the house before heading out to catch more insects for their hungry brood."

Happily, the five baby tree swallows fledged from the water-cooled nest box two weeks later.

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Yellowing Clematis

IF THE FOLIAGE on your clematis is turning yellow, despite receiving morning sun, you may need to take action. First, mulch the soil around the plant to keep the roots cool and moist. If the problem continues, test the soil to find out what nutrients, if any, should be added.

Acid soils and nutrient deficiencies can cause the yellow leaves on alkaline-loving clematis plants. But don’t just guess what needs to be added—follow your soil test. Too much lime to sweeten (raise the pH) or fertilizer can injure or even kill the plant. It also creates problems that can take years to correct. Contact your Extension service for details on soil testing.

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Picture This

THESE PICTURES capture the spirit of the Fourth of July.

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Humdingers

BIGGER ISN’T always better. But when it comes to tiny hummingbirds, a little more size certainly helps you get a better look at these miraculous creatures. That’s where the blue-throated hummingbird has a leg up on its cousins. It’s the largest hummingbird in North America.

Blue-throateds are not much smaller than black-capped chickadees, and measure a full 2 inches longer than the calliope hummingbird, the smallest in North America. They’re heavy, too—double the weight of the ruby-throated hummingbird.

Because of their large size, blue-throated hummingbirds have larger wings and broad tails to keep their heavier bodies airborne. Their wing beats are slower than other hummers, but they’re still a blur of activity to our eye.

These birds have large appetites. They’ll feed on nectar and pollen, but supplement their diet with lots of insects, including beetles, flies, wasps and spiders.

Blue-throated hummingbirds are obviously named for the striking neon-blue throat of the adult male. French naturalist, explorer and bird collector Rene P. Lesson named this brilliant iridescent bird Lampornis clemenciae. The first part of that scientific name appropriately means "torch bird."

Blue-throated hummingbirds have a bully reputation. They’re very aggressive against intruders into their feeding territories, and strike other birds that trespass. You’ll mostly find them in shady wooded canyons and open woodlands in Arizona, New Mexico and southwest Texas, but backyard birders may see them as they migrate through gardens to feed on penstemon, cardinal flower and tree tobacco.

Blue-throated hummingbirds build nests much larger than other hummingbirds. Rather than start from scratch, females reuse their nests for several years, adding onto the old one each time.

Hummer Facts: Blue-throated hummingbirds are the largest hummingbirds in North America. When compared to other hummers that breed in the U.S., it dwarfs them in size. Unlike most hummingbirds, male blue-throated hummingbirds are larger than the females.

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