I thought I had posted this information on the day that we banded but apparently I only posted it to the various Listservs I'm subascribed to. I will need to update the tally on the right of this page soon.

 

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1/15/08

 

Doreen Cubie arrived at my yard this morning around 7:15 AM in hopes of trapping a banded female Rufous who was assumed to be the same one banded by
Fred Bassett in November of 2003. That Rufous was then trapped again in January of 2005 but avoided the trap in 2006 and 2007. I was able to photograph 4 digits of her band in August of 2007.

We set up a borrowed cage that Doreen had recently picked up from Bob Sargent in one of the Rufous' preferred spots, which is also where I'd hung a trainer cage the past couple of days, and she almost immediately entered the cage. Unfortunately, I'd left the feeder port facing the door and she was nervous, refusing to sit on the perch, and she kept rapidly dipping in for a sip and then pulling out of the door to look around. Having a slightly itchy trigger finger, I allowed the trap door to close about an inch, scaring her away. Doreen's earlier warning of 'you may only get one chance, make sure she's in the cage, then close quickly' was weighing heavily on my mind at that point.

An adult male Ruby-throat quickly entered the cage after the departure of the Rufous and was trapped. Doreen had trapped one in the front yard as well. As she was processing them, the Rufous returned and quickly entered the cage and was easily caught. At the same time, Doreen was removing a second bird from the front yard trap as well. We quickly processed the Rufous confirming the number, N62404. It is She!!!

Thanks to Bob for the cage, Doreen for her time today, and to Fred for all he's done here in the past as well as his part in arranging today's session.

In the end, in about an hour, we banded 4 adult male, one second year male, and one female Ruby-throateds in addition to confirming the identity of the female Rufous. Seven birds in about an hour. And, I've been hesitant to say much about the birds in my yard because I'm not seeing the usual activity that I've seen in the past few years.

Doreen Cubie will be here on Tuesday to band my birds. I've set up trainer cages over four feeders in hopes of increasing the likelihood of trapping hummers by getting them comfortable with going into a cage like environment. The training cage is a four sided cage with two open sides so that the birds can get comfortable going into an enclosed area to feed while still having plenty of room to escape.

 

The female Rufous is still around and I may be seeing a few more adult male Ruby-throats along with a couple of young males. There's been a considerable amount of hummer activity in the yard today. Much of the activity appears to be surrounding a new bird... my first probable female Ruby-throat of the year. Hopefully, more surprises lie ahead before Tuesday with the passing front.

 

The freeze last week did minimal damage to my flowers as I still have a number of blooms in the yard. I was hoping for more damage in hopes of getting more hummers to my feeders.

 

 

I feel let down that I have yet to find a Clay-colored Sparrow among the chippies this year but I am seeing a Nashville Warbler occasionally. There's at least one good warbler flock that includes at least one each of parula, Yellow-throated, Pine, Black-and-white, Palm, and Yellow-rumped. A dozen or so goldfinches are also coming to the feeders with the sparrows.

I'm seeing very little hummer activity in the yard recently. I may have seen a young male Ruby-throat on one occasion today but all other hummers seen (other than the female Rufous) have been adult males. The adult males are being seen in 5-6 different areas of the yard but I can't tell how many individuals these sightings actually represent. I did see a couple of territorial disputes today indicating at least one new individual is around. The residents have pretty much grown to accept one another so I don't see or hear many chases anymore.

 

I was surprised to look out my window today and see a young male Baltimore Oriole under a mister just after commenting on my previous report of one as being a one day wonder. Also seen today were first of the season Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers and a House Finch. I had a nice flock of warblers including a parula, a Yellow-throated, Pine, Palm, and Yellow-rumpeds. Last week I had a late Swainson's Thrush for a day and the week before I had a male Hooded Warbler for two days. The Hooded may have been a first for the yard. I've also been seeing a House Wren for the past week and robins have been flying overhead the past two days.

 

I'm assuming some of the birds I'm seeing came in on the last front and may stay for the winter. I'm hoping for more on the next one. Hopefully more hummers.

It's been a month since my last entry. This is not entirely due to a lack of bird activity. More an issue of an excess in my activity.

 

Activity has been fairly normal. I've finally had a couple of good days of songbird migration with Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Summer Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, and various warblers. Unfortunately, I had very little time to survey the yard on those days. A number of male Black-throated Blue Warblers have been seen in the past couple of days.

 

I was out of town over the weekend so I haven't had a lot of time to watch for hummers but they've been harder to find lately. I'm assuming this has to do with a lack of birds migrating through. The regulars seem content with each other so there are no territorial displays drawing attention to them. I actually observed the female Rufous sitting with a young male Ruby-throat perched a few feet away a few days ago. They were both sitting in the same binocular view.

 

A half an hours observation time yesterday produced the female Rufous and at least a couple of adult males and one young male Ruby-throats. This appears to be fewer birds than I would expect but the numbers may be a result of the excess of blooms throughout the neighborhood combined with my lack of observation time.

I've been meaning to include the number of feeders in the yard in my posts. I currently have 12 feeders up - 6 in the front yard and 6 in the back. In past years, I've added feeders based on the number of resident birds in the yard. Considering that most of the birds seen in August and September are migrants, I haven't increased my feeder numbers until October or November. Last year, it was the arrival of the male Rufous that drove the big increase in feeders. 

 

This year, I decided to put out extra feeders before the residents settled in. I'm thinking this may be at least part of the reason for the numbers of hummers I'm seeing every day. It may be a little more work and inconvenience but it'll be worth it if it means more hummers, especially if they remain into the winter. 

Last winter, a videographer from Canada spent a few days in my yard filming the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds for footage to be used in a public service announcement for Canadian TV. The results can be viewed from the Hinterland Who's Who WebPage at:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp

From the "Video and Sound Clips Library" scroll down to the "Search for clips" and select "Ruby-throated Hummingbird" from the dropdown. Click "Submit". Then select "Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 60 seconds—Youth". Select a video format and your download speed and then "view clip".

It's still a typical September in the yard. There are busy times as well as slow times but at least a couple of hummers can usually be found within a short time. Six to ten hummers can be found on most days with a little time spent in the yard. Songbird migration remains slow with a couple of recent visits by Blackburnian Warblers and a Baltimore Oriole but the variety and numbers of birds at any given time remains low.

There has been a big increase in activity in the yard in the past couple of days. I've seen at least 4 new young birds this morning as well as adult males regularly in three areas of the yard. Unfortunately, I have to leave all of this and get to work.

 

At one point when I was watching the female Rufous sitting quietly on a black cherry limb, another hummer started harassing her. I was surprised to see a rufous tail fanned out on the harasser. They quietly took turns performing territorial displays and slow motion chases around the seed feeding area in the yard and then eventually one left  and the other settled back in on her perch. I hate to see the  Rufous being harassed in fear of her leaving but then I realized that I don't know which is which. Do I want a new bird in the yard or the old one? A new one would be a new data point but the old one would be returning data and an old friend. Shortly afterwards, a hummer came in and tried to chase the Rufous off but this bird was a Ruby-throat. Was it an early morning, lack of sleep, hallucination? Or, did I actually see a second Rufous?