We still have two or three immature Rufous Hummingbirds around our place in
Scatter Creek valley, east of Tenino. Looking at last year's informal
records, we had Rufous Hummers around daily through Sept. 3; then there was
a break of several days with no observations, although the yard was not
watched as much; then we had at least one Rufous immature from Sept. 11
through Sept. 18, with a tendency for the birds to appear only around sunset
rather than maintain the yard as territory all day. I think it definitely
helps to have lots of flowers still in bloom into Sept. to keep the birds
around to defend the resource. I have yet to seen any species of
hummingbird in the yard other than Rufous, although we sometimes have dozens
of them, and I have looked carefully for any non-Rufous. (It was an
interesting symmetry that just as the last Rufous Hummingbirds left last
September, the first Ruby-crowned Kinglets returned to this bit of Scatter
Creek valley.)

Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA