Subject: Rufous Hummingbirds migration
Date: Jan 15 18:06:14 2003
From: Bruce McKenzie - bmsh.mckenzie at gte.net


I was about to report an early Rufous Hummingbird sighting and found the
message from Mike asking us to look out for them.

A female Rufous Hummingbird was "collecting" insects from our Vine Maple
tree at 10:30AM this morning. This is a full month earlier than we have seen
a Rufous in our yard over the ten years we've lived here.

I should note that it is possible this is an over-wintering Rufous. We live
in a ravine above Lake Washington. We discovered shortly after moving here
that Anna's Hummingbirds routinely over-winter down by the lake but for some
reason rarely come up the ravine, no matter what the season. This winter for
some reason the Anna's are making daily trips up the ravine and through our
yard. The Vine Maple is a popular spot and gets rather interesting when the
Bushtits, Chickadees, and Hummingbirds all arrive at the same time. The
female Rufous arrived (alone) today about twenty minutes after the Anna's
had passed through the area.

Bruce McKenzie
Kenmore, WA USA
mailto:bmsh.mckenzie at gte.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata at pacifier.com>
To: "tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 18:26
Subject: Re: Rufous Hummingbirds migration


>
> Even without el Ni?o Rufous Hummingbirds regularly arrive
> in southern Oregon in the first week of February.
>
>