Just read Mike Denny's note in this month's WOS News 92 (Aug-Sep) regarding
"Early Nocturnal Feeding by Female Rufous Hummingbird." Since the note
solicits additional observations, I will happily oblige to say that this is quite
common, at least at my place in Bellevue (Eastgate) where I have six feeders
operating at full tilt during the intermittent periods in which I am actually home
.... the longest one being winter from mid-Dec to mid-March. The observation
by Mike was 22 March 2004 involved a female Rufous. I've never observed this
with Rufous but I am usually not around in the Spring, but for years now, this
"nocturnal" (perhaps better stated: "crepuscular") feeding behavior is quite
common among Anna's that hang out at my place throughout the winter.
Especially by late February to mid-March, the feeding intensity seems to be the
greatest but that may be due to the fact that the horde is so habituated to the
feeders by then that they seldom go no further than just the short commute back
and forth between the feeders and the protective cover of the large Rhodies only
inches away on the other side of the fence.

Throughout the winter months, and especially late Feb to mid-Mar, the Anna's
Hummingbirds are almost always the first of any bird detected for the day even
before anything else starts singing (unless there's a Great Horned Owl
hooting in the neighborhood) and are the last to leave in the crepuscular darkness
when they are little more than little black silhouettes. I've long suspected
that a more genuine "nocturnal" feeding may happen at least occasionally even
in the dead of night as I have been out on the deck and occasionally hear that
familiar 'buzz' when I am accustomed to see what I'm hearing but in the dark
of 2am on long damp black mid winter's night, I can't see anything. If those
occasional middle of the night visits are indeed happening, perhaps it's little
more than you or me waking up in the middle of the night for a quick run to
the fridge. Mike's note didn't come as any particular surprise since I just
accepted this crepuscular/nocturnal feeding behavior as normal. ---Richard
Rowlett

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Richard Rowlett
Seattle / Bellevue (Eastgate), WA, USA

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986).
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