Florida is a favorite among affluent retirees, with its warm, sunny climate that allows golfing and other outdoor pleasures year around, especially for those who choose retirement communities. Perhaps the ultimate retirement community is the Devonshire community within the beautiful 3,200-acre PGA National complex of gardens, golf courses and beautifully landscaped grounds.

Finding a new civilized, luxurious new home in the midst of natural beauty is a wonderful gift. Finding one that provides peace of mind, security, and a host of services that free your time for enjoying life is even better.

Devonshire offers luxury apartments with the services of a fine hotel, including concierge, room service, linen service, valet parking, town car and shuttle services, fitness center, and so on. It also offers the safety of alert buttons in bedrooms and baths and a nurse on duty 24 hours a day with the security of a gated community and in-house security staff.

A retirement community should offer the freedom to enjoy outdoor (and indoor) activities, with no worries about maintenance. Devonshire offers seniors all that and more. There are affinity groups for making new friends, access to PGA golf courses and parklike grounds, and much, much more. It is a community where you can relax and enjoy life for now and in the future, as needs and priorities change.

One concern retirees sometimes have is that the new home of their dreams will become too much work to take care of. That is never a problem at Devonshire. Everything is done to assure that you have time to do all the fun and interesting things you want to do—like watching hummingbirds with friends.

Written for a general audience, with spectacular images for birders and nature enthusiasts at every level, Hummingbirds of Texas reveals the enormous appeal of this tiniest and shiniest of birds. The book opens with a look at the many manifestations of the human attraction to these flying jewels. • The Hummingbird Roundup, a citizen-science project run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has recruited hundreds of people to feed hummingbirds and record their activities throughout the state.• The Rockport–Fulton Hummer/Bird Celebration, one of several festivals dedicated to hummingbirds, draws thousands of people each fall to the Texas coast where birds gather in huge numbers before migrating south.• Bird-loving landowners invite the public to enjoy hummingbirds that live and breed on their ranches.• Tips make attracting hummingbirds to your own lawn or garden easy, such as what to plant in the ground or in pots and how to choose and take care of feeders. The authors

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This exciting sticker collection includes full-color portraits of a flock of nature’s smallest and most brilliantly colored birds. Nineteen varieties of hummingbirds — all realistically posed — include the streamertail, Costa’s hummingbird, crimson pella, booted racket-tail, plovercrest, blue-tufted starthroat, and 13 other exotic species. Sure to delight bird lovers and sticker

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Most of us know that electricity has become horribly expensive, but that is just in money. Few of us realize how the plants that make commercially produced electricity affect the health of not only humans but also the earth and all life that lives on it.

Coal-fired energy plants produce air pollution, coal mining pollutes water, and coal ash pits are dangerous toxic waste dumps. As we have seen in recent years, nuclear plants are really not safe—and they produce the most expensive electricity you can buy.

Wind power, though clean, is unpopular in some areas. Hydroelectric power usually requires flooding thousands of acres of land behind a big dam. And so on.

Solar power, on the other hand, keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. It produces no pollution itself, and it is quiet and safe.

Solar has proven economically viable even in northern latitudes, and at today’s prices, even saving half your electric bill can reap a huge savings. In some areas you can even sell electricity to the power company on sunny days, which helps them and you.

What does all this have to do with hummingbirds? Well, hummingbirds have a high metabolism. In order to do the aerial acrobatics we so love to watch, they need plenty of clean air—even more than we do. And clean air is getting harder and harder to find.

In Central Texas, for example, which used to be hummingbird heaven, with a wide array of hummingbird species either wintering there or migrating through—in addition to the hummers that lived there year round, the air used to be pristine. Thirty years ago, Central Texas had some of the cleanest air in the country.

Not anymore. Coal-fired power plants have sprung up in rural areas and are polluting the air for miles. The answer to all that pollution—besides banning the burning of coal—is for people to switch to solar.

Wherever you live, solar power can pay for itself and help preserve fragile birds and other local species. Solar panels are quick and easy to install, and they have fallen in price and risen in quality and capacity in recent years, making them a good deal as well as good for the Earth.

If you live in the UK, you can get up to five free quotes on solar installation costs from a great new website where solar is made easy. Just enter your contact information and a few details about your house.

Easy, safe, clean and now cheaper. What more do you need to know?

Well, you might want to know that hummingbirds are native only to North and South America. But you already knew that, right?

The delicate hummingbird is captured elegantly in this full-color calendar. From beak to tail feathers, these tiny powerhouses are fascinating for a year of

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Covering 31 North American species, with more than 250 color photos and 33 maps, this is the most comprehensive field guide to hummingbirds. Introductory chapters cover the natural history of hummingbirds, ways to attract and feed them, and major hot spots in the United States and Canada for observing these fascinating birds. The 31 color plates illustrate 28 species, 7 hybrid combinations, 3 forms of albinism, and 4 species of sphinx moths often mistaken for hummingbirds. Species accounts provide in-depth information on plumage, molt, songs and calls, wing sounds, similar species, behavior, habitat, distribution, taxonomy, and conservation concerns. Detailed, up-to-date range maps show breeding, non-breeding, and year-round distribution, migration routes, and records outside expected areas of occurrence. For a few widespread migratory species, separate maps illustrate expected spring arrival

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To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet is being re-released on the big screen. For everyone who has never seen it as well as those of us who loved it the first time it will be wonderful to view it again on the big screen. Not to be outdone, ABC has plans for a miniseries of the same name. I plan to watch it as well on my subscription from expertsatellite.com. For everyone enamored with the Titanic story, this will be a huge year. There are also plans on other channels for more in depth specials about the actual people, not fictionalized characters, who were on the boat and their descendants. It’s amazing to see the stories of those whose lives were really affected by the sinking of hat great ship, whether they were a survivor or lost a loved one. I’m always amazed by their stories and how they moved beyond such a tragic event to face life.

“Ace photographer Dan True conveys his passion for these buzzing aeronauts by describing all 16 species of North American hummers, listing their favorite flowers and going into detail about their habits, courtship, and distribution. He then tells us how to photograph them as he does with such consummate skill. Here in one book is all you could hope to know about our hummingbirds north of the border.”–Roger Tory

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Hummingbird Feeders

Hummingbird feeders are designed to contain “nectar,” a cooked syrup of sugar and water that helps the tiny birds sustain the energy level needed to so their aerobatic feat such as hovering in mid air.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, because many of the flowers they naturally sip from are red or have red undertones to their flowers that hummingbirds can see (even if we humans cannot). Some people use clear feeders and dye the nectar red with food coloring to attract the hummingbirds. However, it is best for the birds if you use clear nectar and put it in a red feeder.

You should wash and refill hummingbird feeders at least weekly to prevent the growth of mold or bacteria and keep the hummingbirds coming back for more.

Other Bird Feeders

Many birds can be attracted by feeding them bird seed, suet, or mealy bugs. That gives us something to watch when the hummingbirds have flown away for the winter.

The feeders can be plain or decorative, depending on what you prefer. In many parts of the country it is worth investing in squirrel-proof feeders. Even if you do not mind feeding the squirrels, you may want to keep your furry pals from spilling the birdseed and making a mess on the ground below. You can buy squirrel feeders if you want to, to keep them happy, too.

Be sure to clean your bird feeders at least monthly to keep them clean, safe and attractive to birds.

Bird Houses

Bird houses are a good way to attract beneficial birds such as Purple Martins, which eat mosquitoes, and songbirds. Bird houses can also help protect certain threatened species, such as bluebirds, that have been losing their nesting areas at an alarming rate in recent decades.

Well-designed and well-placed bird houses can help protect nesting birds from predators, including squirrels, rats, snakes, and domestic pets like cats. Bird houses with entrances that are properly sized for smaller species can also exclude larger species that prey on their eggs or nestlings.

Besides being fun to watch, bird houses can also be beautiful to look at, even when the birds are not around. Designs range from tiny, natural-looking and unobtrusive to clever, stylish, artistic, humorous, large or whimsical.

For best results, though, buy from a bird house specialist so that you get the right house, designed for the birds you want to attract, preferably with instructions on the best way to position it. Different bird species have different needs and preferences.

You need to get the right kind of bird house and put it in the right type of location to attract the species or type of bird you want to attract. Otherwise they may just pass it by. Bird houses should be cleaned at least once a year.