No Hummingbird News But Other News!

Unfortunately, we have to live six months of the year without hummers here in central Missouri. So we spend this time feeding the seed and suet eaters, and getting ready for our "traveling" season. This year we will be going to Louisiana twice, to Tennessee, and to Utah during the months of March, April and May!

We will begin our season at the Baton Rouge Spring Garden Show on March 12 and 13. From there we will go to the Spring Fling, March 18-19, sponsored by the Memphis Area Master Gardeners. Then we head back to Louisiana for the April 2-3 Festival des Fleurs in Lafayette, followed by the Southwest Louisiana Garden Conference and Expo on April 8 and 9. April 23-24 will find us at the Illiana Garden & Pond Expo in Crown Point, IN. We then change direction and head to Utah for the Big Bodacious Spring Expo in Spanish Fork on May 6 and 7, followed by the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival in Farmington on May 13 and 14. That's as far as the planning goes at this point, except we hope to be invited to return to the Hummingbird Festival in Sedona, AZ, July 29-31.

We are really excited to be making a LOT of inventory that will be for sale at When Pigz Fly in Raleigh, NC. That area also suffers from hummer-deprivation during the winter, so look for Ozarklake garden art in that store in the spring.

We're still running our 10% off sale. You can access items for sale through our website, or go directly to our shop on Etsy. Now through February 14 enter coupon code LOVE2016 at checkout to save on your purchase!

Watch for the March issue of Lake Lifestyles magazine! We spent a wonderful morning with editor Charis Patires this week for a feature about our work and hummingbirds.

Hummingbird fact for today: Hummers return to sites where they found good food supplies the year before. Give them a reason to come back to you!

Travels in the West

We just returned from a three-week business/pleasure road trip, and we had a great time. First stop was the annual Hummingbird Festival in Sedona, AZ, sponsored by the International Hummingbird Society. As in the past two years, this Festival is well-run with terrific hummingbird sightings and information. We put out a couple of our feeders at the Festival headquarters, and were delighted to see that the rufous hummingbirds took right to them. And of course we met some wonderful fellow hummingbird lovers.

From there we headed off to the Grand Canyon. Terrie's friend from high school and her husband, Ray and Vicki Gooseman Pena, kept showing up. First we had dinner with them in Sedona. Then we ran into them again at one of the overlook sites for the Grand Canyon. And then we met up with them again at a grill in Williams, AZ. Not sure if we were following them or they were following us!!

Rebecca Romney at Bauman Rare Books

Mark Patton-Hall at Clark County Museum

Dirk Vermin at Pussykat Tattoos

Agnes and the General at ATM

Then on to Las Vegas and we are proud to say that we were able to leave some Ozarklake feeders with some of the people we watch on television: Mark Patton-Hall at the Clark County Museum and Rebecca Romney at Bauman Rare Books, consulting experts on Pawn Stars, Dirk Vermin of Bad Ink, Count's Kustoms, Kelly Dale at Rick's Restorations, and the wonderful crew at ATM. We also took in some shows while we were there: Blue Man Group, Cirque's Zumanity, and Terry Fator. One day the voices in our heads told us to head west, so we drove through Death Valley in August where the temperature was over 120 degrees!

We then went to Yucca Valley, CA, to relax and unwind with Terrie's mom and her husband before heading to the Tucson Birding and Wildlife Festival. Unfortunately that show was very disappointing for us.

While we were gone our very kind neighbor kept our hummingbird feeders going, and we found about 40-50 Ruby-throated hummers buzzing around when we returned home. We're going to kick back at home for a while and enjoy these little guys before they had south for the winter.

Hummingbird fact for today: A Ruby-throat, like other birds preparing to migrate, stores fat as a fuel reserve, thereby augmenting its weight by as much as 100% and increasing potential flying time over open water.

We have a winner

We attended the very first Peculiar Arts Festival in Peculiar, MO, five years ago. We went back this year for their 5th annual event. This is a very well run show. We were honored with a Purchase Award from the arts festival committee.

We also very much enjoyed their music, including the Krazy Kats. The Kats have been together since 1957 and although they move a bit slower and have gray hair, their sound is still pretty darn good!

Activity at our hummingbird feeders has slowed down quite a bit. That is common this time of year as mom is sitting the eggs. Once hatched, mom will concentrate on a protein diet to feed the youngsters. We will have lots of activity at the oriole feeders. There are at least 3 male Baltimore's and 4 male orchard's that visit frequently. Plenty of females, too, but not sure which are Baltimore orioles and which are orchard orioles.

We will be at the Wild Birds Unlimited trade conference later this month in Indianapolis. This will be a first - both with WBU and a large trade show. With over 250 franchise store owners in North America, we are hoping to make in-roads with many of them.

Our next "big" gig will be High Country Arts Festival in Eagle Nest, NM, followed by the Hummingbird Festival in Sedona, AZ. September and October will be kind of crazy, with shows nearly every weekend. Keeping busy with the feeders keeps us out of trouble and the plus is that we get to see a lot of our great country.

Hummingbird fact for today: Hummingbirds reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10% sugar.

Wonderful Vacation

We travel a lot but usually we are in the van and toting inventory, the tent, weights, etc. So we decided it was time for a trip with no selling involved. We drove to Ft. Lauderdale and boarded a cruise ship headed south. We stopped in Aruba, Curacao, Panama, and Costa Rico. The highlight of the trip was our transit of the Panama Canal, from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side. I highly recommend Tours by Locals if you want to see a new location through the eyes of someone who lives there and not just the touted tourist attractions.

Our new season will begin in March, with stops in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. All we have to do is wait out the coldest part of the year here in Missouri. And take care of all those niggling appointments with doctors, eye doctors, dentists, etc.

The Hummingbird Society will host another Hummingbird Festival in August which we will again attend, with a stop at the High Desert Arts Festival in Eagle Nest, NM, along the way. We're still waiting to hear where we will be for the rest of the show season.

Hummingbird fact for today: Sightings of vagrant Rufous hummingbirds are increasingly being reported throughout the southeastern US in winter with hummingbird banders capturing dozens of birds each winter.

What a Summer!

We've traveled quite a bit this summer. We just returned from a trip that took us through Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Colorado. We saw the effects of this extremely hot and dry summer everywhere we went. Farmers and ranchers are suffering now, and I fear we will all feel the effects later on when we go to the grocery store and when the electric companies raise rates to make up for the high useage with air conditioners running continuously.

This may also explain the heavy, heavy activity we have at the hummingbird feeders - there's simply nothing out there for the birds to eat. Or maybe it's just that our lazy birds prefer the ease of sipping from a feeder. Whatever the cause, the activity is totally amazing. Terrie's nieces stayed at the house while we were gone to keep the feeders filled, and even they (who had never seen a hummer before) are now taken with these amazing creatures. Both girls were able to hand-feed them!

Our first stop was the 30th Annual High Country Arts and Crafts Festival held in Eagle Nest, New Mexico, July 28-29. Sponsored by the Eagle Nest Chamber of Commerce, the High Country Arts and Crafts Festival is a proud tradition of juried talent that brings many area and out-of-state artists to the Moreno Valley area each summer. Located on the Enchanted Circle between Angel Fire and Red River, Eagle Nest is surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and is home to the beautiful Eagle Nest Lake. Each of the more than 70 attending artists selected one piece to be judged in one of the four recognized categories. My multiple-station hummingbird feeder was awarded First Place in the Craft and Fiber Art Category. There was even a cash prize in addition to the blue ribbon!

We toured parts of New Mexico and Colorado before heading on to Sedona, AZ, where The Hummingbird Society hosted the first Sedona Hummingbird Festival. Executive Director Ross Hawkins and an extremely dedicated cast of volunteers did an amazing job of organizing and promoting this festival. We didn't have a chance to attend any of the seminars or presentations since we were a vendor in the Hummingbird Mall, but every report we heard was that this was THE HIGHLIGHT for hummingbird lovers. We're already making plans to attend the 2nd Annual Hummingbird Festival!

A bonus to being in Sedona was that Terrie re-connected with some old high school friends. Even Terrie's mom joined us and it was a thrill for this former Girl Scout leader to see some of her girls all grown up. And in Ozarklake news, our feeders can now be purchased at Dorine Daniels in the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village, 336 State Route 179, Sedona AZ.

We're doing a local event here at the Lake on Saturday, and then it's on to Trails West in St. Joseph, MO. Shortly after that we'll head off to Silver Dollar City and the National Harvest Festival.

Hummingbird fact for today: Hummingbirds are the world's second largest family of birds with an estimated 328 species.

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

The problem is - it's TOO early to have summer days. Activity at the hummer feeders has slowed considerably, something that usually doesn't happen until June. The only conclusion we can draw is that the females are already on the nest, earlier than normal, and might even be caring for young. If that is so, then there might be two broods this season!

The Hummingbird Society is presenting their first Hummingbird Festival. It will be in Sedona, AZ, the first weekend in June. Check out the information at the festival website and make plans to attend!

We had a great time at DubuqueFest! And of course since we were in Iowa, we had to locate Antique Archeology. The building is MUCH smaller than what it appears on television.

Next weekend is Art in the Park in Columbia, MO. Looks like there will be some great new art and artists in attendance. According to the weather forecast, it SHOULD be a bit cooler than it has been. We always have a good time at this show, meeting up with old friends and making new ones. Hope to see you there!

Hummingbird fact for today: In hot weather, nectar should be replaced every 3-4 days. Hummers will abandon nectar that has begun to ferment.