Finally, a winter hummingbird!

[Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>]

Hi Carolinabirders,

While I was walking my migraine-ridden girlfriend to the student health 
center, my housemate Norm Douglas was at home having breakfast. He saw a 
hummingbird visit our feeder! No firm ID as yet; Norm called it a female 
Ruby-throated, but could not rule out Black-chinned. Norm is a New Mexico 
native, so I'm fairly confident it was an Archilocus sp. female rather 
than a Selasphorus or other genus. I probably won't get home before dark 
today (what a day to have walked to school instead of driving!), but 
hopefully I'll have time tomorrow morning to watch the feeder and see if 
the critter returns. And if anyone else has the time and motivation, I'll 
gladly supply directions; we've got a table and chairs and even a hammock 
in the backyard. Just let me know when you're coming, so I can warn my 
housemates to expect a stranger in the backyard (sorry, feeder's 
invisible from the front).

On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, danetherton wrote:
>
> Song Sparrow at Franklin was singing one
> song after another, and I mean with no pause between.

Funny coincidence, I had the same experience today. We walked to get 
breakfast at the Eno Cafe, in the Durham Wellspring, and cut down Perry 
Street. Just past the Cosmic Cantina, I heard a song which sounded like a 
Song Sparrow's in tone, but which was much longer. I had just decided 
that it must have been a Starling which was mixing Song Sparrow mimicry 
in with other noises, but then I spotted the singer at the top of a 
nearby deciduous tree: Song Sparrow, sure enough. Some folks here do 
research into sparrow song development and such, I'll have to inquire 
with them...

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/