Hummingbird Movement Report 03/03 to 03/19

The most exciting news this week is the discovery of a nesting
ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD in Coos County, OR. The identification was
made based on the pre-copulatory wrestling match she was having with
a male prior to a trip to a nest she was building. That's about
as close as we get to direct evidence around here. This is the
northern most, reliably reported record of a breeding ALHU, which
makes it pretty significant. I hope the observers have a chance
to write this up for posterity in either _Oregon Birds_ or
_Western Birds_.

RUHU(male) Woodinville,WA 2000/03/17 77 47.7544N 122.1014W
Pitt Meadows, BC 2000/03/12 72 49.2500N 122.7000W

RUHU(female) Grants Pass 2000/03/12 72 42.4696N 123.3316W
Corvallis 2000/03/04 64 44.5647N 123.2608W
Triangle Lk, OR 2000/03/02 62 44.2550N 123.5720W
Silverton, OR 2000/03/16 76 45.0053N 122.7819W

RUHU(unsexed) Texada Island,BC 2000/03/03 63 49.7583N 124.5500W
Surrey, BC 2000/03/14 74 49.1167N 122.7500W
Marymoor, WA 2000/03/15 75 47.6575N 122.1014W

ALHU(female) New River, OR 2000/03/12 72 42.9956N 124.4484W on nest

RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS have officially crossed the border into British
Columbia and were reported from several localities. A coastal BC site
at Texada Island reports hummingbirds from March 3 on (the observer
responding to a query put out on the Sister Shorebirds network).

At least three male RUHU were displaying at the Neawanna Wetland Preserve
in Seaside, OR (all within a 30m area) on 03/19. This is the area we
suspected might be a lek last year (lekking is observed in some
hummingbird species). We will be setting up the mist-nets, if weather
permits to do some banding. An inspection of Hooker Willow (Salix
hookeriana) at this site showed a 3/1 ratio of insects on stamenate
catkins compared to Pistilate catkins (COMMON BUSHTITS also seem
to prefer stamenate catkins).

Flowers are now easily found on Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) even in
sites under canopied forests. Red Alder (Alnus rubra) went through
substantial bud burst last week and will be leafing out soon.

There are at least three male and two female RUHU regularly being
observed at my home feeder. On 03/18, a female ANNA'S HUMMINBIRD
stopped long enough to tank up, pretty much ignoring the territorial
male Rufous trying to convince her to leave.

For more information on Northwest Hummingbirds:
http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/archive/humm/humm.html

and if you'd like to help with the hummingbirds and flowers project:
http://columbia-pacific.interrain.org/ahscience/humm/count.html
--
Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
celata at pacifier.com by an unkind establishment,
you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html