Clark Blake said, about Catherine Fryer's (?) March 21 sighting of a Rufous
Hummingbird (RUHU) in Victoria:

>Today's hummer at Victoria is later than expected for the
>Portland-Olympia-Seattle-Bellingham-Vancouver route that I have been
>plotting (they should have arrived about Mar.12). What gives?

The earliest RUHU report received at the Victoria Rare Bird Alert this spring
was of one at a feeder in Victoria on March 5. However, this was a second
hand report, and the sex of the bird was not given. With an increasing
population of Anna's Hummingbirds staying through the year here in Victoria
(59 tallied on our Dec. 16, 1995 Christmas Bird Count), confusion in
identifying the females of the two species is possible; soI suggest caution
with this record until I can check it further.

A male RUHU was reported by an experienced and competent birder in Colwood
(just west of Victoria) on March 11. At this point, this would be our first
record for the year and, according to arrivals in previous years and
according to Clark's projections, is right on schedule.

Perhaps more interesting is our first hummingbird nest reported for the year,
found abuilding last week (March 17) by staff at one of our nature
sanctuaries. Because it was so early, I assumed it would be an Anna's, but I
checked it this morning and found a RUHU female on 2 eggs. This would appear
to be the earliest nest record reported for this species in BC - by at least
5 days (Campbell et al - "Bird of British Columbia").

As Clark says, "What gives?"

Let's blame it on Hyakutaki.

Bryan Gates, Victoria bgates at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca