It’s Easy To Attract Hummingbirds
September 4, 2010
Few sights are more thrilling in the garden than rapidly moving hummingbirds darting among colorful flowers. Hummingbirds, also known as hummers, are always a wonder to see, and it’s easy to attract them to your garden.
In Florida, we see three different types of hummingbirds, but the most common is the ruby-throated. This feathered jewel is only about three inches long and weighs as little as a single penny!
For their size, hummingbirds have among the largest appetites in the bird world. They feed every 10 or 15 minutes from dawn until dusk. During this period, they eat more than half their weight in food and 8 times their weight in water.
If you’re fascinated by hummingbirds, as I am, you probably hang out a feeder or two in the summer to provide them with sugar water. Artificial feeders will attract hummingbirds.
However, feeders should not be the sole source of food provided. The sugar solution may appeal to the hummingbirds’ sweet tooth, but it provides little nourishment. Nectar is much more vital to the hummingbird than just water and sugar. By planting certain flowers and shrubs, home gardeners can provide food and habitat for hummingbirds.
Typical hummingbird flowers are red, have a tubular shape and have no strong scent. But there are several notable exceptions to this general rule. Many plants with red flowers don’t contain very much nectar. Roses, petunias, geraniums and zinnias have brilliant colors but little nectar.
Plants that produce an abundance of flowers over an extended period of time and those that require little care are good choices. Native plants can “fill the bill” where nectar-seekers are concerned and should be used whenever possible.
Perennials that are recommended as nectar sources include butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), red basil (Calamintha coccinea), shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana), cigar plant (Cuphea ignea), firespike (Odontonema stricta), red star hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus), and obedient plant (Physostegia spp.).
It’s also important to plant a mixture of nectar producing trees, vines and shrubs that have overlapping blooming seasons. This will insure that a continuous source of nectar will be available to hummingbirds throughout the growing season. Some of the species recommended include red buckeye, bottlebrush, firebush (Hamelia patens), wild azalea, trumpet vine, and coral honeysuckle.
Contrary to popular belief, hummingbirds are not strictly nectar feeders. Insects and other invertebrates are the primary source of protein for adult hummingbirds and their young. An adult female can consume up to 2,000 insects per day. Small invertebrates including mosquitoes, gnats, small bees, fruit flies, spiders, caterpillars, aphids, and insects eggs make up the hummingbirds diet. So keep your plants free of pesticides. Pesticides destroy the insect food base vital to hummingbirds and their offspring, and may also contaminate the nectar they drink.
And if you do use artificial feeders, remember that the sugar solutions must be kept fresh. Florida’s hot weather can cause rapid bacterial growth in these feeders and birds that drink contaminated water could die. To avoid this, change the solution every 3 to 5 days. Clean the feeders with hot water and white vinegar. Do not use soap or chlorine bleach.
Theresa Friday is the Residential Horticulture Extension Agent for Santa Rosa County.
Funeral Services Held For Father, Son Killed In Monday Wreck
September 4, 2010
Funeral services were held Saturday for the father and son who died Monday in a Flomaton traffic accident.
Services for Stephen Carl Thompson, 33, and his son, Nathan, 9, of Bay Minette, were held at Hand Avenue Baptist Church. Burial was in Bay Minette Cemetery.
Thompson is survived by his wife of nearly 12 years, Christie Thompson; and three more children, Valerie Thompson, Joshua Thompson and Rachel Thompson, all of Bay Minette.
Thompson, a Pensacola native, served as a member of the National Guard since 2006. His family moved to Bay Minette when he was a teen, and he played soccer and football at Baldwin County High School. He graduated in 1994.
He was employed by Redbox, a movie rental company. He had reportedly taken his son Nathan, who was homeschooled, to work with him. He had left a Redbox location in Atmore and was on his way to service machines in Brewton.
Donations to assist the family can be made to Christie Thompson, c/o Hand Avenue Baptist Church, 2001 Hand Ave., Bay Minette, AL 36507.
The Thompsons died Monday afternoon in a crash at Highway 113 and Highway 31 in Flomaton when their vehicle was struck by another vehicle driven by Alice Bradley Bradford, 79, of Pensacola. Bradford and her husband Edward M. Bradford, 80, were both transported by helicopter to Pensacola Hospitals where Alice Bradford later died.
Funeral arrangements for Alice Bradford have not been publicly announced.
For more on the accident, click here.
Escambia County Beats B.C. Rain 43-15
September 4, 2010
The Escambia County Blue Devils beat B.C. Rain Friday night in Atmore 43-15.
The Blue Devils (2-0, 1-0) were led by Chris Johnson and Rico Stallworth with two touchdowns each.
Johnson’s touchdowns were one and 31 yard runs. Stallworth’s TD’s were one and 26 yards. An interception by Torian Brown was ran back 75 yards for another touchdown , and Chris Smith had a one-yard touchdown dash.
The Blue Devils, under first year Head Coach Mark Heaton, will be on the road next Friday night against a tough UMS Wright team. UMS Wright is coming off a 47-0 defeat of W.S. Neal Friday night.
Flomaton Hurricanes Blow Past Southern Choctaw
September 4, 2010
Ryheem Dixon had a good Friday night for the Flomaton Hurricanes, as they blew past Southern Choctoaw 27-14.
Dixon had touchdown runs of 53 and two yards, and had a five yard pass to Austin Patterson for another touchdown.
The Hurricanes opened with an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 32-yard touchdown run from Neiko Robinson. On the ground, A.J. Odom had 116 yards for Canes on 21 carries.
Flomaton accumulated about 315 yards, about 265 of them on the ground in their Southern Choctaw defeat.
The Flomaton Hurricanes (2-0, 1-0) will be back at home next Friday night against J.U. Blacksher.
For more photos, visit www.mikenewtonphoto.com.
Submitted photos by Mike Newton Photography for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
More Charges Filed In Connection With Billings Murders
September 4, 2010
More arrests have been made in connection with last summer’s murder of Bud and Melanie Billings for allegedly trying to dump guns in Mississippi.
State Attorney Bill Eddins and Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan announced Friday afternoon that a Mississippi grand jury has indicted Hugh Wiggins, Pamela Long (pictured), and Eddie Denson on one count each of being an accessory after the fact.
The charges arose from the trio’s attempt to conceal or destroy evidence in the Billings murders in Jackson County, Mississippi. Both Wiggins and Denson were arrested on Friday in Pascagoula. Pamela Long is currently incarcerated in the Escambia County Jail. A detainer has been placed against her and she will be arrested on the Mississippi charge after the conclusion of her Florida case.
Road Construction Won’t Slow Holiday Travel
September 4, 2010
A little good news for motorists this Labor Day weekend — those pesky road construction zones won’t slow you down.
To ease traffic congestion and insure safety along the roadways in northwest Florida, construction contractors working on state roads will cease operations during the Labor Day weekend, according to Tanya Sanders Branton, public information specialist for the Florida Department of Transportation.
There will be no work on state roads requiring lane restrictions through Monday, September 6, she said. All major roads in northwest Florida will be open to normal traffic.
Companies Plan To Announce Hundreds Of Century Jobs
September 3, 2010
A group of new industries are planned for Century that could mean up to 500 jobs, breathing life back into the old Alger-Sullivan Lumber complex that has sat idle for a number of years.
Century Lumber and Land, LLC plans to join Railmark Holdings and Milton Timber to announce a total of five ventures slated for Century.
The companies will, over a course of time, be in the business of:
- treating railroad crossties
- dry kiln treating domestic lumber for the building industry
- building and selling lumber kilns
- repairing freight railcars, railroad track and maintenance
- processing and marketing Paulownia trees as biomass fuel and wood products
“Century Lumber and Land is definitely moving to Century, company Manager Jim Craft told a group of business and industry leaders at a Thursday board meeting of the Century Chamber of Commerce. “We are as anxious to get started as y’all are for us to get started.”
An official announcement is expected within a few weeks.
“I’m optimistically looking forward to the announcement,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. “If it happens we will be celebrating.” He said his office and the Century Chamber had worked for seven years to bring a company to the Alger-Sullivan site.
Craft said Century Lumber and Land’s unique crosstie treating method uses an environmentally friendly chemical. The company will also use dry kiln treat domestic lumber and sell their own line of kilns.
Railmark, a Michigan company, will establish a location of its established track construction and maintenance company in Century to serve the Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi markets. The company will use a portion of the Century property to perform both shop work and mobile repairs railcars.
Milton Timber will market biomass fuel — essential a charcoal type product — made from Paulownia trees. The Paulownia tree is rapidly growing species, gaining about 17 feet per year, that can be harvest every five years.
Craft said the operations would employ 300 to 500 people with a 36-42 month period, with about 200 of those employed by Railmark.
The 38 acre property was last sold in early 2006 to DMT Holdings, LLC in Navarre, according to the Escambia County Property Appraiser’s online records. The facility includes five buildings totaling just over 300,000 square feet, according to the property appraiser. The buildings on the property range in age from 11 to 54 years,with the largest 160,150 square foot building constructed in 1972.
Pictured top: Darrell Kelsoe of Milton Timber explains the Paulownia tree during a Century Chamber of Commerce meeting Thursday. Pictured inset: Jim Craft of Century Lumber and Land, LLC. Pictured below: The former Alger-Sullivan Lumberyard in Century. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Photo Gallery: Hundreds Turn Out To Meet The Northview Chiefs
September 3, 2010
Hundreds of people turned out Thursday night to Meet the Chiefs at Northview High School.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Escambia Purchases $12.5 Million Radio System; Media Outlets Ask For Delay Over Dispute With Sheriff
September 3, 2010
The Escambia County Commission voted Thursday night to purchase a $12.5 million communications systems for use by the county’s law enforcement, EMS, fire department, road department, road prison and code enforcement.
Local media outlets, including NorthEscambia.com, the Pensacola News Journal, CatCountry 98.7, NewsRadio 1620 and WEAR TV 3 had lobbied the commission to delay the purchase over concerns about Sheriff David Morgan’s plans to encrypt his department’s radio traffic — leaving the media and the public unable to listen in using a radio scanner.
“It does seem that loosing the ability to listen to the audio transmissions of our county’s radio systems would be a very bad for the public to the extent the media is the eyes and ears of the public,” Dave Hoxeng, owner of CatCountry 98.7 and NewsRadio 1620 told commissioners Thursday night.
“Let me ask you a rhetorical question. If your house is on fire or your wife is getting beaten, who do you want to respond? The public? The media? Or the Sheriff’s Office or fire department?” Morgan asked the commission. “For us to spin this to say something that it is critical for the media to respond to this incident is complete and utter nonsense.”
Morgan has publicly opposed allowing media access to the radio traffic on encrypted channels to be used by his department. Instead, he has proposed expanding an Internet based CAD — computer aided dispatch — system that shows active calls, as well as a “paging” system that will use text or email messages to alert media outlets on pagers or smartphones about high priority calls.
“The media is attempting to portray to you tonight that we are trying to restrict their access. Nothing could be farther from the truth,” Morgan said. “In order to protect my officers and protect the public, this system needs to be encrypted.”
The sheriff provided the commission of an example where unencrypted scanner traffic could present a public service and officer safety issue.
“Horrible areas on Pond Street and Juniper, common knowledge that the druggies up there are listening to our radio scanner,” Morgan said of Pond Street in Century and Juniper Street in Walnut Hill. With “the druggies” listening to scanners, Morgan said “When we roll up on scene they’ve closed up shop and left on Pond Street…now all the drug dealers know that Mrs. Smith is the one that called. If that’s not a public safety issue folks, I can’t describe one to you any better that that.”
“What I am truly hearing from the media is ‘you are not giving us what we want’…we’ll that’s life. My concern is public safety and officer safety,” the sheriff said.
Dick Schneider (pictured) publisher of the Pensacola News Journal, asked the commission to delay a vote on the radio system to give local media outlets another opportunity to meet with Morgan.
“We would like to continue our discussions with Sheriff Morgan on making this work for the benefit of the media and, most importantly, the public,” Schneider said. He suggested that criteria could be determined to establish which companies are professional media, and those outlets could be provided with the digital key needed to unencrypt the Sheriff’s Office radio traffic.
Kyle Brinkman, news director at WEAR TV 3, said the encrypted radio channels “would hamper our ability to serve the public and quickly deliver information during situations such as hurricanes and tornadoes. We all are all aware of how important it is to be able to deliver timely and relevant information to viewers during these life threatening situations.”
The decision to encrypt the Sheriff’s Office radio traffic was a policy decision to be made by the sheriff, not the commission, Commissioner Gene Valentino said.
Radio traffic of the other county services will not be encrypted, allowing the media and the public to continue to listen to fire and emergency medical traffic using scanner radios. The new radio systems is expected to be installed and operational in as little as 18 months.
Preview: Northview Vs. Graceville
September 3, 2010
The Northview Chiefs have their sights set on a playoff appearance this year, the second year at the helm for Coach Sid Wheatley.
The Chiefs lost five senior starters on the offense. Overall, the team lost 20 seniors from last year’s 7-3 season.
“It’s a gradual process, but I think we have them at the level they need to be at,” Wheatley said of his younger team. Brandon Sheet, a junior, will be called upon to lead the team at quarterback. There is just one senior — Tyler Brooks — starting on defense.
Young team or not, Wheatley said his Chiefs will be ready when the get off the bus in Graceville. Long road trips are tough, but the second-year head coach said Northview travels better than most teams.
Wheatley knows that Graceville will be ready tonight in the non-district game, thinking about last year’s 34-16 Northview win.
“Graceville may have a little revenge on their mind from last year where we were able to get out in front of them kind of quick. So I’m sure they have that on their mind and would like to make amends,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of good athletes; they’ve got some good size up front, so it’s going to be tough.”
Pictured: Northview High School Head Coach Sid Wheatley addresses fans Thursday night at the school. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.