It’s been a great hummingbird migration season. The resident & nesting Black-chinneds arrived in April. Had successful nesting season. Then, in early July started getting Rufous migrants, with good #’s of adult males & females. Those were followed by numerous juvenile Rufous, jealousy guarding the feeders up until a week ago. This past week has seen the arrival of more Calliopes than have ever visited our feeders in past 30 yrs. This past wk, juv Calliopes have been the owners of the feeders, up to 4 at a time, even chasing off the larger Broad-taileds, which arrived yesterday.
The Broad-taileds have always arrived like clockwork, the last WK of Aug. Rufous & Black-chinned have been gone a week now. Greatly reduced hummer numbers today. Down to just keeping 1 feeder full & dropped only 2 oz today. Should get stragglers into Sept.
Others migrating thru: Olive-sided Flycatcher, Cooper’s Hawk, W Wood-Pewee, BH Grosbeak, Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler (mainly juvenile), Red-naped Sapsucker, Pine Siskin, Turkey Vulture & Common Nighthawk. Along the river: group of 10 BN Stilts. Next couple of weeks should see more & more fall migrants.
This has turned out to be a great bird to challenge us and a fun discussion. Now looking at this photo I withdraw my earlier suggestions on it being a Pectoral and am agreeing with Cliff’s suggestion it is a Western. It is so interesting on how posture and lighting can make a bird appear different. I was also worried about the light streaking but I had just seen earlier that day two Pectorals with streaking about that light. (I had actually thought they might be Westerns until a flock of Westerns flew in and surrounded them – it really helps to have a known bird for comparison.) As far as Bairds, I would expect a much more long winged elongated shape.
Any reports (positive or negative) this morning or throughout the day for both this bird and the phalarope would be greatly appreciated! Hoping these birds stick around for just a bit longer.
-Carter
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