[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Rufous Hummingbird (York SC)
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: Rufous Hummingbird (York SC)
- From: BILL HILTON JR Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 10:25:46 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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.