Hi Tweets,

Alan Richards writes:

>My wife Ann & I wondered (snip)
>how these small birds make it thru the colder
>nights, given the possibility of making it thru the days...

They find somewhere out of the wind and become deeply torpid. Heart-rate,
basal metabolism and body temperature drop significantly, not enough to
qualify as hibernation but a sort of 49-cent version of it. After waking,
it's over to the feeder for a hit of sugar water, then out to forage if the
weather's not too bad. During the day they spend a fair amount of time just
sitting to conserve energy, with visits to the feeder to re-hydrate.

>Also,
>I believe the first confirmed WA state record was 11/30/64 thru
>Feb, 1965, with nesting confirmed sometime in mid-1970's -- seen
>on territory in April 1974 in Discovery Pk, Seattle. (refs Western
>Birds, vol 7, no 1, 1976) -- rather recent addition to WA recs.

Interesting! The first confirmed record was quite a bit later than BC,
though they had to have come through WA to get here. When were the first
unconfirmed reports? Quoting Birds of BC (Campbell et al):

"The species may have appeared in British Columbia as early as 1944. In a
letter to the editor of a Victoria newspaper in January 1953, J.O. Clay
writes "...a hummingbird was observed here (Victoria) for three winters
since 1944 until January 13, 1947 and this season at intervals until January
12." In the 1950s, 18 records of wintering birds are on file, all from
southern Vancouver Island, but identification was not made until 1958...The
first breeding record was also reported that year. The first record for the
[BC] mainland coast was from West Vancouver in 1959."
"The first Okanagan record was on 23 October 1974..."

The northernmost BC sighting was in Atlin BC in Oct 1980, just S of the
BC-Yukon border, and there are "several records in autumn and winter in
southeastern Alaska." (ibid) as of 1978. The difference between the winters
in northern interior BC and the SW coasts of either Alaska or BC is qualitative.

BBC goes on to say, "Its centre of abundance is the Greater Victoria area.
"Nearly all the British Columbia records for the species are from habitats
associated with humans, primarily yards and gardens.
"The first observations of the birds in the province were invariably from
gardens containing yellow [winter] jasmine or fuschias."

Another note based on personal observation here in Vancouver BC is that all
the local sites are in or near extensive western redcedar and coastal
douglas-fir forest with an understorey of devil's club, salal and red alder,
with the West Vancouver site including Pacific madrone (arbutus menzeisii)
as it's a narrow transition zone between Cool Humid Temperate Rain Forest
and Cool Mediterranean. Victoria's climate-type is the latter.

Though over the years a number of people in both West Vancouver and Surrey
BC have seen courtship and nest-material gathering by known resident
females, all Anna's Hummingbird nests in the Greater Vancouver Checklist
Area remain unfound.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net