Re: Guess My Hummers are Headed to their Winter Home

"Lanny Chambers" <lanny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:lanny-E96E2F.22522113092007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <cakGi.126986$xx1.86215@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Jan Owen" <janowen1@xxxxxxx> wrote:

At the other house, I had a VERY rare little lost colony of ruby throats
that apparently got lost at migration time, and stayed around, and lived
there all year after that for many YEARS.

Please tell me more, Jan. Where? When? Are they still around? Any
photos? Arizona only has one official record of Ruby-throated, a female
trapped and identified in 2005 by Sheri Williamson.

Hi, Lanny,

Not much of a story to tell, really...

When we had our previous home built in the late 1970's, it was at the
extreme western edge of what was then Phoenix... In fact, it's still only
five houses from the Phoenix city limits out there now, though suburbs have
been built further west... Made it great for telescopes, because the skies
were dark, and there were lots of birds... But at the time, I was not
paying much attention to birds. Mostly the stars. My mother was the
official birdwatcher of the family (though as a child, I asked her so many
questions about our birds in West Virginia[then], that SHE became an avid
bird watcher as a result of having to do research to answer MY questions,
and she carried that interest along out here when we moved west in the fall
of 1960.

Fast forward to 1977. I'd been married for about 6 years then, and just had
a new home built. And I began to get interested in birds once again,
probably largely driven by the number of hummers that we had there... So I
started feeding them, and taking note of what we had, and finding out what
ones were there that I couldn't ID... Early on, we had mostly Anna's with a
few broad-tails, and a rufous a couple times a year, passing north or
south... Then, after several years like that, along came a pair that were
just a little out of place... A little smaller than the broad tails, and
with a V notch in their tails, rather than the wider, more rounded tails of
the broad tails. And with a similar gorget to the broad tails, but without
the red hood all the way over the top like the Anna's have... At first, I
thought they might be a broad-tail variant of some sort, but they (well,
mostly the male, and later, when there were more examples - youngsters that
eventually grew up - they were the same - I don't think there were ever more
than about six or seven living in the vicinity at any time). Being
admittedly not as experienced as my Mom was at the time, I asked her to come
over to visit (she only lived about ten miles away), and see what SHE
thought...

She spent most of a day watching them (and they came frequently to the
feeders). And she concurred, as unlikely an area for them to BE in, they
appeared to her to be ruby throats, as I had been calling them... To the
day she died, I never heard her second-guess her call on that one, either...

We sold that house and moved here almost five years ago, now, and while
we're only 20 miles northwest, I haven't seen any ruby throats here, nor
broad tails, nor rufous, either... But here, we have an abundance of
Costa's, which I never saw there, and a few Anna's... So life's still
interesting. But perhaps not QUITE as interesting in this respect...

When we moved up here, we left two hummingbird feeders, filled, hanging in
their regular spots on the back patio, in hopes the new owners would
continue to feed them, but I have NO idea what has transpired there since
the day we left...

That's about all there is to say... I know this is pretty far off the
beaten path for either their summer breeding grounds, or their migration
path, but they sure APPEARED to be ruby throats... Interestingly, while I
did have some pretty good 35mm camera equipment at the time, I never felt
drawn to photographing them at the time... Now, I image everything that
moves... Ahhh, well...

Howard and I've had some *spirited* discussions about the probability that I
might be wrong. And that possibility has ALWAYS been there. However, based
on what *I* saw, I haven't changed my opinion, wrong as it may be... I know
that even a lost soul on a migration journey, off course, for whatever
reason, would most likely be a male, not a male AND female, since they
normally migrate at different times... I have no clue... They both showed
up on my feeders at about the same time; but they may not have arrived in
the VICINITY at the same time...

Time for a little of the Twilight Zone theme, here...

Hmmm! For not much to tell, it sure TOOK long enough...

--
Jan Owen

To reach me directly, remove the Z, if one appears in my e-mail address...
Latitude: 33.6
Longitude: -112.3
http://community.webshots.com/user/janowen21


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