This has been here long enough.

homerpa said: I think those paths drawn are misleading; how can you know they took those routes? homerpa, what do you mean by misleading, the main reason I drew the paths is to show how they have flown around TN and KY. The paths are just "guesstimations" and nothing more, nobody knows for sure the exact paths of hummingbirds. But some spots seem to have more early inflow of hummers each year based on many years of past reports. If I made a average flow line for every mile east or west it would look like a black blob of black because of too many lines on the map. They don't follow each specific paths of course (they are spread out) the paths are just an estimated flow directions or streamline paths for the migration pattern. I did make a more accurate estimation on the paths based on reported dates from 1997 to 2010. Here is all the colored lines from all those years combined that I made in the map below. The light blue lines are Mar. 1st, green Mar. 15th, and dark blue Apr. 1st. I then made paths based on common "noses" averaged out from reports that stick out northward (places that usually get hummingbirds more early) and I then connected the dots. Nobody can know for sure the exact paths but I made a fairly good estimation based on first reports over the years and given they mainly travel from south to north in the spring of course. homerpa said: I also don't understand the logic here- you're speculating that the birds avoided those areas? Would that mean that they also avoided the areas between all the dots throughout the map?? After all, there are only dots for where they were reported, right? No, the logic is that is a huge hole, there should be many reports in that huge hole or gap by this time of the year based on average reports from 1997 to 2010. Of course they won't avoid the areas between all the dots, I'm not dumb. lol Ruby-throated hummingbird population is estimated to be over 7 million, and how many dots are on these report maps annual? Like 400 to 500 reports. But it does give an average line of how far north, east, and west they are currently, and based on past reports one will know what cities or towns the reports come from each year. So in other words if there is a big gap where there usually are many report this time of the year, then it's a little odd. Like I said: powerful storms on the 15th and 17th are probably why there are few reports in KY and TN currently. But eventually that big gap will fill in with reports. Read here for more info on migration: http://www.hummingbirds.net/migration.html Notice this interesting fact: "Banding studies show that each bird tends to return every year to the same place it hatched, even visiting the same feeders."

I am also just seseing this swap idea on this parft of the board. We are fairly new to the area and loive in Soddy Daisy near the Possum Creek Campground. Love plants and do have a couple of plants to share whenever the next swap takes place. Have a couple of native columbines and maybe some asiatic lilies. This group sounds like a lot of fun and since I love flowers, it would be a good match. Cheryl

Just wondered if anyone was near that area and had someone to recommend (or someone to steer clear of). I've made two phone calls...only got to talk to one PB. When I asked him for a "ballpark figure" of pool with 'these' features, he just said that whatever the pool costs to put in--he adds $10,000 on top of that for the install. Would love to talk to someone that you've had a good experience with. Thanks!