Subject: [Tweeters] Possible sighting of Calliope Hummingbird in Southpark
Date: Jun 12 19:24:06 2014
From: Rick Forsman - rjforsman at hotmail.com


While reading your the story about the possible calliope I really got a sense of your excitement and it reminded me of why I like reading the tweeter stories so much.It also... Made me think to myself " I wonder how rare of a sighting that really is" ? in king county that is.So I went to the county list and wow! Really rare , congrats. My wife and I bought a house and have lived in fall city for 5 years now and have been lucky enough to have seen the Anna's , Rufous, Black chinned and Calliope. Wow for me too ! The black chinned and calliope were both mature males and very easily identified even though they were only for 5- 10 minutes each for one day .They both sat at our window feeder a mere 2 feet away.
I've only been on tweeters this year and am not familiar with postings of rare sightings on any other sights. I'm sure a lot of birds go unseen by people but my question is should I feel obligated to post these sightings being that they were rare and if so ,where ?

Bird On !!!

Rick forsman
RjforsmanAThotmailDOTcom
Fall city Wa.

On Jun 12, 2014, at 3:32 PM, "Rick H Hudson" <rhhudson at uw.edu> wrote:

> Fellow Birders,
>
> My son, Dain, forwarded this message to me on Monday. On Tuesday, Dain again saw what he thinks is a male calliope hummingbird briefly. Yesterday, Courtenay Jackson and I went down try to see it, and feel that we were successful. However, it is very difficult to get a goood or long look at it so far. My best look this evening was just after seeing 2 male Anna's hummers sitting on the same telephone wire just over the front yard. Just a few minutes later, I believe a male calliope sat on the same wire facing in the same direction as the two Anna's, facing towards me and silhouetted against the evening sky. The purported calliope was distinctly smaller and seemingly, as least compared to the Anna's, had no tail.
>
> All glimpses that we had of this bird were very brief, but added up to a male calliope hummingbird!
>
> There are four feeders, one on each side of the house.
>
> The yard is not locked, and birders would be welcome to visit during the day tomorrow, but as with all stakeouts, please be respectful of his property and the neighborhood.
>
> Rick H. Hudson
> rhhudson at uw.edu
> 2727 NE 94th St
> Seattle, WA 98115
> 206-696-1387
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 22:33:09 -0700
> From: Dain Hudson <dainger19 at gmail.com>
> To: Rick H. Hudson <rhhudson at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Possible sighting of Calliope Hummingbird in Southpark Seattle on June 9th, 2014
>
> I was sitting 3 feet from the southwest feeder (front porch) at approximately 5pm on June 9th, when I observed what appeared to be a different hummingbird from the usual Anna's that frequent feeders placed on each side of my house. The only other species I've seen at my house is one very good sighting of a Rufous one month ago. My first thought was the possibility that it was an immature male Anna's, as it was noticeably smaller than an adult Anna's but had more gorget markings than a female. I had an excellent view for about 3 seconds before it flew away, and although it was backlit, it was in shade and there was light cloud cover. Glare was not an issue. Due to the lighting I was unsure of the color of markings on the gorget but the markings and colors were easily identifiable in all other respects. I clearly noted dark stripes (or vertical lines of spots) on the gorget, a light grey underbelly, greenish highlights on the sides of the body, and a much shorter tail than a Anna's hummingbird, which I was able to confirm (along with the difference in size) when a Anna's flew to the same feeder a few minutes after. I didn't get a good look at the tops of the wings or backside of the bird. It looked very much like the attached picture of a Calliope hummingbird, although the stripes on gorget were slightly more filled in. I'm located at:
>
>
> 834 S. Thistle Street, Seattle Wa 98108
>
> There is no parking allowed on the same side of the street as the house.
>
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