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Up with Hummingbird Feeders!
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: Up with Hummingbird Feeders!
- From: "BILL HILTON JR. (Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History)"<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 22:40:21 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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Just a reminder from Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
that it's time to put up your hummingbird feeders if you haven't
already done so. Early migrant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
(Archilochus colubris) have been increasing in number along the Gulf
Coast, so it's just a matter of time before that first influx arrives
in the Carolinas and points further north.
As a rule of thumb, have your bluebird boxes in place by Valentine's
Day, and your hummingbird feeders up by St. Patrick's Day.
Here at Hilton Pond, the earliest ruby-throat on record was a male
banded on 27 March 1991. Typically, males are the first to arrive,
with the earliest females trailing them by a week or so.
It's possible that having feeders up in spring is potentially more
important than at other times of year; there are few natural nectar
sources available, and the hummers could probably use a hit of sugar
water after expending so much energy flying in from the tropics.
And besides, in the highly competitive sport of hummingbird feeding,
if your feeders go up now and your neighbor lags behind, you're much
more likely to get bragging rights for the first local hummingbird
sighting of 2000!
Please see the Operation RubyThroat website
(http://www.rubythroat.org) for lots more hummingbird information.
Happy Hummingbird Watching!
BILL
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BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA
e-mail: <hilton@hiltonpond.org>
Voice: (803) 684-5852
eFax: (503) 218-0845
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit research and education organization, so all in-kind or
monetary gifts to Operation RubyThroat and the Center are
tax-deductible. Please visit our websites:
Hilton Pond: <http://www.hiltonpond.org>
Operation RubyThroat: <http://www.rubythroat.org>
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."
BHjr.
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