Hi Joel -
I didn’t take your previous comments as being dismissive. Different places,
different bird behaviors, different observations.
BTW, our resident hummers are still conspicuous by their absence. Let’s hope
they’re well and just enjoying themselves elsewhere! We look forward to them
coming back for a visit.
Thanks,
Nagi & Taghrid.
On Apr 29, 2018, 7:42 PM -0700, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>, wrote:
Hi Karen, Nagi, Roy, and All,
Just catching up here after being out of the country for a week ...
I didn't mean to sound dismissive of local observations, but sometimes it's
useful to offer contrary reports.
It sounds like there might be a real dearth of Rufous hummers along the
coast, and perhaps in some other locations.
However, our feeder north of Corvallis is still getting good numbers.
Yesterday when I drove down to the Bellfountain area south of Philomath to
pick up a friend of our daughter who's visiting for the weekend, ze said that
zir family's feeder is getting upward of 9 Rufous Hummingbirds right now.
Just while I was waiting in the driveway for a few minutes, I saw three
Rufous hummers zip out toward a nearby patch of forest, and I heard the wing
zings of at least two more. So I wouldn't doubt zir count of nine.
Happy birding,
Joel
On Tue, 2018-04-24 at 11:19 -0700, Karen Saxton wrote:
That's about the same as here, just outside Coquille in fairly mature
second growth forest. I have three overwintering males, and while they
usually quit displaying once the rufus start claiming the feeders, they
still visit regularly. We normally have 3-4 pairs of selasphorus. In the
past 10 days I have had one male anna;s, 1 selasphorus male, and 1 female
of each, plus a recent Anna's juvenile. It's really quite eerie to be in my
pollinator/hummingbird garden and not have a constant buzz of wings.
Definitely my lowest count for April. I was wondering how universal it was,
given logging nearby from last May, which I'm blaming on the lack of
bandtails, and the small numbers of purple funches. At my mom's in NB there
is a group of about 25 overwintering annas between her yard and her
neighbors. At dusk her neighbors have 3-4 on each of 4 feeders we can see
from her deck, and she usually has one at each of hers. It's as if
perhaps they've changed their usual habits. I'd be interested in knowing
what it's like for everyone else in another couple weeks.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 9:17 AM, Nagi Aboulenein (Birds)
<nagi.aboulenein@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Roy’s comments are pretty consistent with our observations here in the
King City area. We usually have at least two year-round resident Anna’s
Hummingbirds, but we’ve had no sight of them for at least two or three
weeks, and the level of fluid in the feeder has not been changing either,
so it’s unlikely that they’ve been visiting while we’re not around.
Thanks,
Nagi & Taghrid.
On Apr 24, 2018, 8:57 AM -0700, Roy Lowe <roy.loweiii@xxxxxxxxx>, wrote:
Like the previous report of disappearing hummingbirds in Waldport all
of our birds have disappeared from our yard adjacent to Eckman Lake. We
have Anna’s year-round and they were present until about 10 days ago.
Two male rufous showed up and staked out our feeders but no females
ever arrived and now the males have departed. Last year we had the
lowest number of rufous in our yard ever. Perhaps the birds are being
drawn elsewhere or shortstopped by native plants as suggested by Joel,
but in 31 years of living here we’ve never had hummingbirds totally
disappear from our yard. During the breeding season.
Roy
On Apr 24, 2018, at 7:42 AM, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:POST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Just to supply some contrary observations:
I've been noticing very good numbers of Rufous Hummingbirds this past
month at Luckiamute State Natural Area, making use of an abundant
bloom
of both Oregon-grape and red-flowering currant.
Both of these native flowering shrubs -- both good nectar sources --
seemed to stay in bloom longer than usual this year, perhaps due to
the
mostly cool wet weather during early April after these shrubs started
blooming.
If some folks are seeing fewer hummingbirds than usual at sugar-water
feeders than in past year, perhaps it's because natural nectar sources
were more abundant than usual.
However at our place north of Corvallis, there has been no dearth of
Rufous Hummingbirds. If anything, we were seeing more than usual at
least through April 18th (I've been away since then). But we do have
quite a bit of red-flowering currant planted around our yard.
Good birding,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
temporarily in Nancy, France
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