About a week ago a neighbor told me she had a Rufous in her back yard. I was skeptical until I saw the chubby little ball of fire. That same day we had our first BC male at our feeders here in the North End. And yesterday I had a female Black Chinned come to our feeders 3 times while I was sitting outside with binos (and a beer). And I saw a male Calliope in Hulls Gulch last Thursday, but none in my yard so far.

Lots of other arrivals are making it easier for me to meet my 30 bird quota every day.

Tom McCabe, Boise

From: ible@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ible@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Tuthill satuthill@cableone.net [ible]
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2019 2:35 PM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] Hummingbird Report — Boise Highlands

Let me follow up from Larry’s Hummingbird Report with my own
observations here in the Highlands area of Boise.

I got our feeders up on April 30th and immediately had both
Black-chinned and Calliope visiting the feeders. I don’t keep as
accurate of records as Larry but in the last 10-12 years I think we have
had our FOY hummers in April only 2-3 times. The more normal date is May
3-5 or so. So yes, this is an early year.

So far I have only seen male Black-chinned but have both male and female
Calliope. Like Larry’s place, outside of spring and fall migration, the
only hummingbirds we have are Black-chinned. Calliope and Rufous are
brief visitors, hanging out only until they feel like moving on to
where they really want to be.

I want to pass on an observation and see if others have comments.
Yesterday I heard a hummer come in that sounded like a Huey Helicopter.
It’s wings were really loud. Almost like some of the flying beetles I
have seen and heard. Of course I immediately thought it was a
Broad-tailed – a specie I have only seen 2-3 times here and in the fall.
When I finally got a good look at it I realized it was a Calliope – no
doubt. The question then is why was it’s wingbeat so loud? A damaged
primary? Moulting? Any thoughts? I also want to caution folks to make a
Broad-tailed ID call based on wingbeat noise. I noticed a bunch of
recent eBird sightings of Broad-tailed that referenced this usual field
trait. But, it also seems like there might be “noisy Calliope’s” out there.

Scott Tuthill