Subject: Cascadia Hummingbird Report - May 17, 2004
Date: May 16 19:25:57 2004
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


Cascadia Hummingbird Report - May 17, 2004

Rufous Hummingbirds have now been reported from just about as
far north and as far east as they go in their breeding range.

Grande Cache, ALB 05/01/2001 53.8833 119.1333
Valdez, AK 05/03/2004 61.0834 146.3024
Seldovia, AK 05/06/2004 59.4391 151.7091
Missoula, MT 05/12/2004 46.8688 114.0076
Freezeout Lake, MT 05/12/2004 47.6667 112.0500

I caught the first juvenile of the season for the Neawanna
Banding Station Sunday, a hatch-year male. I had a likely hatch-
year female last week, but she managed to get away before I could
check for sure.

For comparison, here are the earliest HY captures for the past
four years at Neawanna Banding Station:
05-29-2000
06-03-2001
06-01-2002
06-09-2003

My best guess is that the unusually dry, warm spring has contributed
to the early appearance of young of the year. The monthly average
for April was 2.4?F above the norm and there was only 2.85 inches of
rain which is about half normal. May is shaping up to be warmer and
drier, too.

Some species of flowers are blooming early and it's been a remarkable
spring butterfly season, as well.


For more information on tracking Rufous Hummingbirds see:
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/humm/count.html

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com