Cascadia Hummingbird Report - 03/28/2005

Weather this week has been stormy and wet with temperatures around
normal (a bit warmer in some placer and colder in others). This
appears to have slowed the migration.

Lee Cain and his daughter sent in this observation, which definitely
falls into the unusual behavior category:
"Naomi and I experienced the coolest hummer behavior I have seen
yet at Lagoon Lake in the Oregon sand dunes [Lane Co near Florence].
As we were walking around the campground trail, a female RUFOUS
HUMMINGBIRD zoomed in to a spot about 2 meters from our feet, and lit
on the GROUND at a recently dried up puddle. She then began scarfing
down some tiny critters while actually standing on her two little
feet -- she was not hovering. We watched transfixed, and then as
soon as she had buzzed away, we got down on our hands and knees to
see what she had been after. Coming out of the mud were 3 or 4 tiny
emerging midge adults, and I am fairly certain that these must have
been what she was eating."

Of course, insect eating is a well known behavior. Insects are
probably the primary nutritional food source for early arriving
Rufous Hummingbirds and an important protein source for nestlings.
I've seen both Rufous and Anna's Hummingbirds work hatch-clouds
of flying midges on many occasions, but ground pecking for emergent
bugs is a new one on me.

Naselle, WA 02-19-2005 50 46.4144 123.7262
Denman Is, BC 03-01-2005 60 49.5333 124.8167
Lund, BC 03-15-2005 74 49.9667 124.7667
Olympia, WA (2) 03-18-2005 77 47.0419 122.8938
Oregon City, OR 03-18-2005 77 45.3449 122.5968
Ucluelet, BC 03-20-2005 79 48.9333 125.5500
Dunbar, BC 03-20-2005 79 49.2500 123.1833
Miller Canyon, AZ 03-21-2005 80 31.4046 109.9175
Patagonia, AZ 03-23-2005 82 31.4147 110.2758
Monroe, WA 03-26-2005 85 47.8556 121.9697


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

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

If you want to end war and stuff, you've got to sing loud
- Arlo Guthrie