By Savannah Magoteaux

By October, a feeder that seemed to need refilling every day can suddenly go quiet. The hummingbirds haven’t disappeared. Most have headed south.

The ruby-throated hummingbird is the species most Oklahomans know best. It breeds across much of the eastern United States and Canada and migrates to wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. Some birds cross the Gulf of Mexico in a long nonstop flight. Others follow the Gulf Coast.

Fall migration stretches over weeks rather than happening on one date. Adult males often start south before females and young birds. Hummingbirds you see later in the season may have nested farther north and are passing through Oklahoma.

That leads to one persistent myth. Feeders don’t keep hummingbirds from migrating. Changing day length and internal biological cues drive migration. A clean feeder can help late migrants refuel. In Oklahoma, it can also give you a chance to spot an unusual western hummingbird that wanders east after the main ruby-throated migration.

The standard feeder mix is plain white granulated sugar dissolved in water at about one part sugar to four parts water. You don’t need red dye. Clean feeders regularly, and more often in warm weather, when sugar water spoils faster.

Natural food matters, too. Hummingbirds feed heavily on small insects and spiders as well as nectar. Late-blooming native flowers can supply fuel when migration demands are high.

The trip south is remarkable for an animal that weighs only a few grams. Before migrating, hummingbirds enter hyperphagia, a period of intense feeding that lets them put on substantial fat reserves and carry their fuel with them. That stored fat is essential, because hovering flight takes enormous energy and long stretches of migration may offer few chances to refuel. Birds that cross the Gulf may fly hundreds of miles without stopping.

Weather can delay or speed up their movement. North winds after a cold front may help southbound migrants, while storms along the Gulf can hold birds up. That is why feeder activity can spike for a day or two even after your summer birds seem to be gone.

When the last familiar bird leaves your feeder, it may be headed to southern Mexico or Central America while another bird from Kansas or Missouri is still on its way through. A quiet feeder usually means the traffic has changed, not ended.

You can support migrants without trying to manage their schedule. Keep feeders clean, leave late-blooming flowers in place and avoid broad insecticide use around nectar plants. A hummingbird may sip at your feeder, then spend much of the next hour hunting tiny insects for protein and other nutrients.

Don’t worry if your feeder stays up after the usual migration window. The birds won’t cancel migration because sugar water is available. A feeder left out can support late birds, but keep it especially clean once visits drop, because nectar may sit longer between refills.

If you see a hummingbird well into late fall, take photographs if you can. Oklahoma occasionally hosts species more typical of the West, and documented late-season visitors can make valuable bird records.

By Norman Winter | Horticulturist, Author, Speaker

If you’ve read this column the past few years, you know I put great importance on choosing plants for pollinators around the farm or ranch, home or office. When those plants pack untold beauty, even better. This column aims to put one plant on your must-have list for 2027: the Mexican flame vine.

Names like Mexican Flame and Orange Glow tell you right away that this flower is bold and riveting in color. Add a vine that draws hummingbirds and butterflies and blazes fiery orange, and you have an award-winning plant.

To be honest, I think everyone should grow it for its botanical name alone, Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides. Imagine the look on your neighbors’ faces when they ask, “What’s that gorgeous vine you are growing?” and you tell them.

The Mexican flame vine is a woody tropical vine. Most references say it is cold-hardy in zones 9 and higher, but I have seen many return just fine in zone 8. It is worth every penny even as an annual. As the name suggests, the vine is native to Mexico, and it isn’t picky about soil. I’ve grown it in acid soil fit for azaleas and in soils more reminiscent of the desert. It belongs to the aster, or daisy, family, and you’ll quickly notice the resemblance.

I realize we are at the beginning of fall, but if you start sourcing now or talking to your favorite garden center, you’ll be ready for spring. When you get yours, dig a hole about twice as wide as the root ball and plant at the same depth it was growing in the container. Set the vine next to a structure for support, like a trellis, arbor or pergola. You may have the perfect fence post that could use a Mexican flame vine.

It is a compact vine that reaches only about 10 feet tall, and it tolerates drought once established. You’ll need to do a little training to get it climbing. You’ll also like that pests rarely bother it.

The vine reblooms reliably, and if you need to cut it back a little, it will quickly send out new growth and another round of blooms. That blazing orange screams to be planted with complementary blue flowers. My first choice would be blue salvias like Unplugged So Blue or Rockin’ Playin’ the Blues. If you’re bold and want a native, consider the late-summer-blooming hardy ageratum, known botanically as Conoclinium coelestinum.

Once yours is growing, you’ll notice all sorts of butterflies feasting on the rich nectar. Red admirals, fritillaries, monarchs and yellow sulphurs of all sorts will visit regularly.

Vines give the landscape a vertical dimension, much like hanging a mirror or picture on a wall indoors. The Mexican flame vine will be one of the most dazzling additions to your garden. Start sourcing yours now so you’re ready for spring.

Follow me on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.

By Ann Asher

Walk through a pasture, garden or wooded trail on a September morning, and the spiders seem to have taken over overnight. Large webs stretch between fence wires, across tall weeds and from one side of a path to the other. Covered with dew and caught in early sunlight, they show how many spiders have been working through the night.

Spiders are around all year, but many become more noticeable in late summer and early fall as they mature and build larger webs. The insects they eat are also plentiful, giving spiders plenty to feed on before cold weather arrives.

If you’ve ever walked face-first into a web, it can be hard to think of spiders as welcome neighbors. Most, however, are harmless to people and valuable in gardens, pastures and barns.

Spiders are predators that feed on insects and other small arthropods. Their prey can include flies, moths, beetles, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, aphids and caterpillars. Oklahoma State University Extension notes that their role in controlling insects far outweighs the limited risk from the few species capable of medically significant bites.

Builders and hunters

The webs most people notice in September usually belong to orb-weaving spiders. Their flat, circular webs have the familiar spokes and spirals of a storybook spider web. Orb-weavers set these traps where flying or jumping insects are likely to pass, including between plants, along fence lines and across openings in wooded areas.

One of the best-known orb-weavers in North Texas is the black-and-yellow garden spider. A mature female can be big enough to cause alarm, with long legs and bold yellow, black or orange markings. Her web may have a thick zigzag of silk down the center. Despite her size and looks, the garden spider is generally harmless to people.

These spiders can catch surprisingly large prey. Texas A&M AgriLife reports that large garden spiders often catch and eat grasshopper-sized insects. Their webs may be a nuisance across a walkway or gate, but the spiders provide natural insect control around gardens and fields.

Not every spider needs a web to catch a meal. Wolf spiders hunt on the ground, moving through grass, leaf litter and bare soil in search of prey. You’ll often see them after dark or around outdoor lights, where insects gather.

Their size and speed sometimes get them mistaken for more dangerous species, but wolf spiders aren’t considered a significant hazard to people.

Female wolf spiders care for their young in an unusual way. They carry a round egg sac attached beneath the abdomen. After the eggs hatch, the tiny spiderlings climb onto their mother’s back and ride there until they are ready to hunt on their own.

Jumping spiders are smaller, compact hunters that use excellent vision and quick movements to stalk insects. Look for them on fences, tree trunks, porch railings or plant leaves. Rather than building a web, they creep close and leap when the moment is right.

Crab spiders also hunt without webs. Often found on flowers, they use camouflage to wait for visiting insects. Some are white, yellow or green, letting them blend into petals and leaves. Web builders and active hunters alike help keep insects in check.

The two to watch for

Most spiders you meet outdoors aren’t dangerous, but North Texas is home to black widows and brown recluse spiders. Both generally prefer protected, undisturbed places rather than open webs across a garden path.

Black widows often build irregular webs in sheltered spots, including woodpiles, storage areas, outdoor furniture, meter boxes and unused containers. Brown recluses prefer dark, quiet places such as boxes, sheds, lumber stacks and the spaces beneath stored items. They don’t usually build the large, circular webs you see in open vegetation.

Neither species goes looking for people. Bites often happen when a spider gets trapped against the skin or disturbed while someone moves stored materials. Wear gloves when handling firewood, boards, boxes or debris, and shake out shoes and clothing that have been stored in a shed or garage before you put them on.

Correct identification matters. People often mistake wolf spiders, grass spiders and other harmless species for brown recluses. A dark marking on a spider’s back isn’t enough for a reliable ID. If you think a medically important spider is around, contact your county Extension office or a qualified pest professional.

Let them work

Outdoors, spiders rarely need controlling. Sweeping a web away from a doorway or busy path is usually enough. The spider may rebuild nearby or move somewhere quieter. Broad insecticide treatments can kill spiders along with many beneficial insects and are often unnecessary in gardens or open landscapes. Oklahoma State University recommends leaving most garden spiders alone because they help suppress pests.

Spiders are also part of the food chain. Birds, reptiles, small mammals and other arthropods eat them, and their presence reflects the steady trade between predators and prey in even a small patch of grass.

The web across your trail may be an inconvenience, but it also means an effective hunter is at work. By morning, that web may hold the remains of moths, flies or grasshoppers that might otherwise have moved into your garden, barn or pasture.

Late summer belongs to the spiders. Their webs catch the dew, mark the paths of insects and reveal a part of the outdoors most of us overlook. Most aren’t waiting to harm anyone. They are doing the work they’ve done all season, one strand at a time.