Subject: Re: Rufous Hummingbird Arrivals
Date: Feb 1 21:44:35 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Rob Conway writes:

>This send me scrambling. Was my recollection that out of whack? I'd
>put Michael's knowledge of local birds up against almost anyones....

Heh! Thanks! Wish I knew as much about the stock market... Seriously,
there's lotsa people around compared to whom I'm still a beginner-to
mid-range birder. It's the *patterns* that are so interesting, not just the
finding and the ID's, and that tell us so much by putting the finding and
ID's in perspective.

>So - I went and checked my records for first sitings of Rufous
>Hummingbirds. All of these sitings were in the same general location on
>Cougar Mountain.
>
>1990 - Feb 12
>1991 - March 1 (significant snow in mid-Feb if I recall)
>1992 - Feb 13
>1993 - Feb 10
>1994 - Feb 20
>1995 - Feb 16
>1996 - Feb 12
>1997 - Feb 14
>
>That makes ~Feb 16 as the average date. So this date is not 10, but 15
>days early - believe me, I was surprised as heck. In a previous house I
>lived right next to a big patch of salmonberries and could predict
>within a day or two when the rufous hummers would arrive by the date of
>the salmonberry flowers opening.

Wowza! Feb 16! That's still nearly three solid weeks ahead of here, where
the earliest ever was a Feb 27 male. There's something really interesting
going on here. Normally north- and southbound arrivals are earliest at
coastal sites, so this is *well* in advance of this coastal site just to the
N. So perhaps Vancouver BC birders are looking in the wrong place for the
northbound migration's first Rufous--maybe instead of being as far S as they
can get in the checklist area down near the Canada/US border in Langley
around Mar 8-15, they should be up high on a local mountain's south slope
about *now*. Is your salmonberry on a S slope, Rob?

Or maybe I should put on my bright red 'Moscow Mickey' t-shirt and stand in
the open. '-)

>I also saw RUFFED GROUSE and RED CROSSBILLS after my earlier posting
>today - what a strange mix of birds.

Heh! You want to talk strange mix? When Bob & Elaine Taylor were here last
Sunday, we saw the Xhummer in the AM and the eider in the PM, and Bob
cracked that this was the first time he'd been able to twitch from Baja to
Barrow in the same day!

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)