I originally said that I was leaving the Xantus's Hummingbird on my life list
and I still feel that I will do that at least for the time being.

The first time I went up to Gibsons to see this bird, we were told that this
bird was eating every 5 to 6 minutes when it was first discovered. I do not
know if this was at the flowers in the yard or at the feeder. This type of
feeding for a hummingbird showed that it was very hungry. We were told that
it eventually went to 15 to 20 minutes between feedings which I believe is a
more normal feeding pattern.

In the past I removed a bird from my life list when I lived in another state
because it was determined to be "not countable" due to the findings of the
rare bird committee. That was a number of years back when I was fairly new
into birdwatching. This past summer, in talking to a member of the rare bird
committee from an adjoining area to where I lived, I found out that this next
door neighbor committee had accepted this same bird since it moved between
these two areas.

Subsequently, I am still wondering about removing this hummer from my list.

Nancy Ladenberger
nladenbe at aol.com
Kingston, WA