Little Tchefuncte Hummingbird Hill Habitat


Huckleberry	Red Buckeye	Sulphur Butterfly on Firespike

Early Spring and Summer		Fall and Winter
Taiwan Cherry Tree (Prunus campanulata.)	Texas Sage (Salvia coccinea)	Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans	Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
Huckleberry / blueberry (Vaccinium spp.)	Anise Sage (Salvia guaranitica)	Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha)	Blazing Star Liatris pycnostachya
Redbud (Cercis Canadensis)	Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana)	Sultan's Turban (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii)	Winter shrimp plant (Justicia spp.)
Japanese Magnolia (Magnolia X soulangiana)	Fire bush (Hamelia patens)	Sasanqua (Camellia sasanqua)	Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus)
Old fashioned camellias (Camellia japonica)	Button bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)	Formosa lily (Lillium formosanum phillipinense)	Red maple Maple (Acer rubrum)
Native azalea (Rhododendron canescens)	Citrus spp.	Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)	Loquat, Japanese Plum (Eriobotrya japonica)
Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia)	Cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit)	Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)	Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana - Hamamelidaceae)
Coral bean (Erythrina herbacea)	Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica)	Firespike (Odontonema strictum)	Yellow Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)
Cross vine (Bignonia capreolata)	Ham & eggs lantana (Lantana camara)	Flowering Maple (Abutilon spp.)	Sweet Olive (Osmanthus frangrans)
Lemon bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus)	Trumpet Creeper vine (Campsis radicans)	Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)

Story of Our Pets

We share our backyard wildlife habitat with 8 beloved pets (3 cats, 2 dogs and 3 cockatiels). All of our pets found us in different ways and now coexist with each other and with the wild inhabitants on Hummingbird Hill.

Hummer Banding Study Photos

Current Projects

~ Participating in a banding study (conducted by Linda Beall, a local bander) to collect data about the breeding habits of ruby throated hummingbirds and the migration behavior of several western species of hummingbirds. Click on the photo to see more about Hummingbird Banding and for photos of the hummingbirds.

~ Constructing nest boxes for cavity dwellers, especially wood ducks, screech owls, Prothonotary warblers and bluebirds.

~ Preserving the beauty and cleanliness of the Little Tchefuncte River and Pruden Creek and restoring our habitat to pre-Katrina condition.

~ Planting and maintaining several butterfly and hummingbird gardens.
~ Planting and preserving Native Plants with the other members of the Folsom Native Plant Society.

~ Recording information about and photographing the many box turtles that roam the habitat.

Due to the extremely high price of feed for our wildlife and the post-Katrina habitat restoration that we are currently undertaking, we are offering Little Tchefuncte Hummingbird Hill T-Shirts at our Cafepress Store. Several styles are available featuring our Hummingbird Kiss photograph and the purchase price includes a donation to help maintain our Wildlife Habitat. Click on the T-Shirt to see all of the Hummingbird Hill apparel.

All photographs on this site are copyright © Al & Yvonne Bordelon. All rights reserved.

~ You may also want to visit one of our newest projects, our Naturally Native Creations Gallery and our Cafepress Shop to see our nature related creations and designs, including cards, official postage stamps, mugs, T-shirts, calendars, posters and much more.

Put Your Mouse on the hummingbird to see a Hummingbird Kiss.

Check Out Our Other Informational Nature Related Pages

Hummingbird Gardening: Who wouldn't want to attract hummingbirds, nature's flying jewels, to their yard? Hummingbird feeders will help bring them into view, but to really sustain them it is necessary to plant for them.
Gardening with Native Plants: Using native plants in the landscape and sustainable gardening are 2 hot topics, today. This lens will provide you with native plant lists, techniques, and links to more information that will get you started on the way to creating an ecologically healthy garden.
The Cardinal's Nest: Every bird-watcher and most children recognize the male Northern Cardinal, but many people know nothing about its nesting and courtship habits. This lens has photographs and information about nesting Cardinals.
Gardening to Attract and Sustain Butterflies: What is more beautiful than a garden full of colorful flowers with gorgeous butterflies flitting around? This lens will show you how to create a haven like this right in your own yard.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth: One may think there's a tiny little baby hummingbird flying among the flowers, but more than likely it's a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth.
Prothonotary Warblers: A small golden yellow bird with blue gray wings darts across the creek. its clear, high, metallic rising "tsweet tsweet tsweet tsweet tsweet" song rings out through the forest. See photos of them nesting and the babies fledging.
Nature Postage Celebrates Animals: This lens celebrates wildlife and says, "We love and protect animals". It is here that the creatures of Louisiana, both wild and domesticated, are spotlighted (in a positive way) by displaying their photo on USPS postage stamps.
How to Build a Bluebird Trail: Lawrence Zeleny's book, the Bluebird How You Can Help Its Fight for Survival, alerted the public about the peril of our native Bluebirds. Now people all over North America are building and maintaining Bluebird Trails. You'll find pointers about starting your own trail and info about cavity nesting birds.
Our Pets' Stories: Through the years we have had many pets and somehow, in the grand scheme of things, most of them found and adopted us. This is the story of some of the beloved animals that have shared our lives.
Creatures of the Night: When the sun goes down, the night creatures come out of their nests, dens and boroughs. This is their time to shine. This page is constantly being updated with new photos and information about more nocturnal animals.
Naturally Native Creations: Naturally Native is all about our love of nature, animals and the great outdoors. We enjoy Louisiana's scenic rivers and the abundant native flora and fauna and we want to share it with the world.
Preserving Louisiana Flora and Fauna: Scientists from all over the world, like Douglas Tallamy the author of Bringing Nature Home, are advocating using native plants in sustainable, ecologically balanced gardens in suburban and urban yards to help bring back the beneficial insects that are so crucial to our survival. Learn how to create a backyard habitat.
Carolina Wren's Nest: The little brown Carolina Wren pair with their perky tails and loud voice builds a nest somewhere around our house each year. This year we photographed their nest in the hanging basket on the porch. This lens contains information about Carolina Wrens and lots of photographs of their nest and babies.
Carolina Chickadees: Carolina Chickadees are great little cavity nesting birds. They are permanent residents in the Eastern United States and coexist well with humans since they love sunflower seeds and suet. Chickadees are very under rated and everyone should take more notice of these interesting and intelligent little birds. This lens celebrates the Carolina Chickadee.
Sustainable Gardening a la Rabbit Hill: When Robert Lawson wrote and illustrated Rabbit Hill over 60 years ago he was ahead of his time in the way he felt about sharing his part of this earth with the indigenous animals. For years, we have been using many of the gardening "techniques" that he wrote about in this wonderful children's book in our sustainable garden.
Red-bellied Woodpecker Family: The only good thing that Hurricane Katrina did for Southeastern Louisiana was to leave plenty of broken trees in which the woodpeckers and other cavity nesting birds could raise their young. The Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been very prolific this ye...
Favorite Wild Fruits: Every since we were children, we have loved the fruit of native plants. Now, with the Green movement and the increased use of native plants in landscaping and sustainable gardens, those delicious fruits are available to more people.
Favorite Animal Fantasy, Amazing Tales and Mystery Books: Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mysteries are my favorite genres and I love animals of all shapes and sizes, so when you put them together, well, I could stay happily occupied for hours. This lens contains an annotated bibliography of my favorite Animal fantasy, amazing story and mystery books.
Please Eat the Wild Flowers: For centuries, people have been eating wild flowers and plants. There are so many tasty buds out there, free for the taking, if you know what to look for. I've included some of our favorite edible wild flowers and plants with descriptions, photographs and recipes.
Bluebird Tribute in Video and Song: This is a tribute to the beautiful and joyful Bluebird of the fields and forests of the U.S. Young and old alike should enjoy this lens which features Bluebirds in Video, Songs and literature. Yes, this is a love fest for Bluebirds, whether they be from the east, the west or the mountains.
New Orleans Goes Buggy for Bugs: If you live in one of the Gulf Coast states and want to take a "single tank" vacation, then you should head for New Orleans to see the brand new Audubon Institute Insectarium, a museum which displays and celebrates our largest family of animals, the Insects.
LSU Tigers Video Tribute: The LSU Tigers had a remarkable season in 2007 with Les Miles and in previous years with he who will not be named. This lens is a collection of some of LSU's greatest moments and memorabilia. We hope you'll enjoy the memories and that you'll be rooting for the Tigers this fall.
Camellia Gardens: The beautiful Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua have been in southern gardens for so many years that it's hard to think of a garden without them. We have several very large, old-fashioned specimens in our heirloom garden and we are lucky to have the Hammond Research Station Camellia Garden close by.
Mizell's Butterfly and Hummingbird Extravaganza in Folsom, LA: Each September, Mizell Farms welcomes butterfly and hummingbird lovers to their nursery for the annual Butterfly and Hummingbird Festival. Events include speakers, hummingbird banding, visiting the butterfly house, touring the nature trail and much more.
Restoring an Heirloom Garden: We are still working to completely restore our heirloom garden to it's true glory, and we thought that some of the gardeners out there might like to hear about how we began. Each time we pulled the weeds and vines away from a beautiful plant it was like discovering living hidden treasure.

Let us know what you think.

Stumble It ! Write a Review about this page on Stumble.

Back to the Top

Nest Box Trail We maintain a trail of 25 nest boxes, most of which we built ourselves. The majority of the boxes are standard bluebird boxes that were constructed according to plans from the North American Bluebird Society and were erected with predator baffles. Four are larger boxes that were designed for wood ducks. During the breeding season, from late February to August, each box is checked on a weekly basis and a detailed record is kept of the progress of each nesting pair. To date our boxes have been used by bluebirds, chickadees, tufted titmice, Carolina wrens, Prothonotary warblers, great crested flycatchers, wood ducks, screech owls, and flying squirrels.	For more info about building your own nest box trail, visit our Squidoo lens: How to Build a Bluebird Trail.
	Visit our Prothonotary Warbler Squidoo lens, to find more information about these fascinating birds.	Click on the birdnest icon to read more about our Nest Box Trail.
	A female Prothonotary Warbler exits her nest box.	A bluebird fledges

Habitat Description

A Day on Hummingbird Hill

Habitat Description Habitat, Habitat, Habitat.... If you plant it, they will come. To attract wildlife to your garden you must provide: Food - in the form of plants (nectar, berry, and nut producing) and/or feeders. Shelter/Cover/Nesting Sites - Evergreens are especially important for wintering Hummingbirds and natives are preferred nesting sites. Nest boxes can also be a pleasing addition to the garden or dead trees and limbs can be left standing. Water - from a large pond to a birdbath, but dripping or moving water is most appealing. Our property is a registered National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat (number 21325). We do everything possible to keep it natural and wild since natural wildlife habitats in the area are being destroyed at such a rapid pace. You don’t have to have a large piece of property, even a small backyard can become a sanctuary for wild creatures.
	A Day on Hummingbird Hill A typical day begins with the feeding of the birds and animals. Sunflower seeds and cracked corn are distributed among a dozen different feeding stations near the house and the suet feeders are also filled. We use about 75 pounds of black oil sunflower seed and cracked corn each week. Our 15+ hummingbird feeders are also checked and observed. We use from 2 to 5 pounds of sugar each week for these. A walk to the river is next on the agenda and a dozen more feeding stations are checked and filled. In addition to our regular activities, a typical Post-Katrina day includes cutting up and moving some of the 100 mature pine, black cherry, oak and hickory trees that were downed by the hurricane force winds and tornadoes. Clearing trails and repairing feeding stations and nest boxes are other Post-Katrina activities. Click on the small photos for a large view.


A Green Anole and a Young Ruby Throated Hummingbird share a sugar water feeder.	A Pine Warbler visits a suet feeder.



	Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardens Hummingbirds are attracted to (usually red) tubular flowers that contain a lot of nectar. Butterflies require less nectar so most hummingbird flowers will also attract butterflies. But you should provide plants that the butterfly larvae can feed on like parsley, fennel, milkweed, citrus, passion flower, hollyhock, black cherry and mulberry to mention a few. Visit our Gardening to Attract and Sustain Butterflies Squidoo Lens for more information about butterfly gardening. Also check out our Clearwing Hummingbird Moth Lens to learn more about interesting and beautiful moths and Moon Gardens. Scroll down for a list of other nature related lenses that we have written and links to our other nature sites or visit our Naturally Native Creations page.

Tiger Swallowtail on Mexican Sunflower	Plants That Provide Flowers To Attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies