As you can see on the right above that fluttering little creature, hummingbirds aren't due for another couple of weeks. I see online that the time to hang out the feeders is April 25.However, I've read in various places that they sometimes show up a little early, so I decided to hang a feeder out, just in case.
See that tree in the background? I always just called it a bean tree, until I became acquainted with the hummingbirds; now I call it a hummingbird tree, because that seems to be where all my little hummers lived. That's where they'd go after filling their bellies at the feeder.
Now I'm calling on my readers to help, because I haven't gotten anywhere with Google on this. Do you have any idea what the real name of this tree is? It can't be a Catawba/Catalpa tree, because their pods are long and slender. I'm sure nobody planted it; it's on the fence line that used to mark the north side of our original property, before we bought more land. So it's some wild species. I've watched it growing since 1975, when we first moved here; at that time it wasn't very big. For a while, I used that metal building for a chicken house, and the tree provided a spot of shade for my hens.Unfortunately, possums considered the hen house to be an all-night buffet, and after the deaths of eleven hens and twelve possums, I relocated my poultry to a spot closer to my house.
But I digress.
The tree has these big, fat pods (hence "bean tree").
And inside the pods are brown/black seeds that, when dry, look like buckeyes to some folks. Buckeyes, however, don't have that kind of pod.Anybody know?
After posting this I once again started googling and found information on the Kentucky Coffee Bean tree. That could be it!
