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Rufous Hummingbird (York SC)




HI . . .

If you read our account of the recent retrap of a banded Rufous 
Hummingbird in Casar NC (see 
http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek011101.html ), you may recollect 
the essay ended with a fervent request that Santa bring us our very 
own winter hummer at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 
near York (York County) SC.

Apparently, Santa listens!

Yesterday, after returning from five-day birding trip and speaking 
engagement at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, I observed at 
some distance what appeared to be a young Rufous Hummingbird. Not 
wanting to jump the gun, I rose before dawn today (20 November) and 
set several mist nets in the vicinity of the hummer feeders I 
maintain year-round. At about 9 a.m. the hummingbird appeared and 
perched on the top string of one of the nets, occasionally flying off 
to catch an insect or two. It also made a few visits to feeders. 
Finally, at 10 a.m. the bird entered a trap and I pulled the string.

Close examination revealed the bird to be a first-year female Rufous 
Hummingbird in excellent condition and weighing 3.56g. Photos of this 
bird--the 164th species seen and 123rd species banded locally--will 
appear in an upcoming edition of "This Week at Hilton Pond."

I'm sure you will join me in my jubilation at this early Christmas 
present during Thanksgiving week. I've been awaiting a vagrant 
hummingbird here at Hilton Pond since the winter of 1985-85, but 
maybe Santa didn't think I had been good enough until now.  :-)


Happy Thanksgiving To All,

BILL

-- 

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites at http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org

"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."					BHjr.