VA Birders:
I made three trips to the Smithsonian in December looking especially for the
Black-chinned which would have been a life bird. Each time I was disappointed
and saw only the Rufous. The last trip was I think December 11 or 12. There
were two guys from Delaware at the Ripley Garden who had apparently driven
down just to see the hummers. I didn't get their names but they seemed to be
competent birders. They told me they hadn't seen the Black-chinned, but they
had seen two Rufous Hummingbirds. We watched one Rufous come to the feeder
area
several times, then someone came and told us a hummer was in the Haupt Garden
at the west end of the building. I walked (alone) around the building and
saw a bird in the yellow potted flowers in the Haupt Garden. It had a rufous
wash on its flanks and there was nothing about its size or bill that suggested
other than a Rufous - at least not to me, bearing in mind I'd never seen a
Black-chinned. However, it seemed to have more dark gorget markings which made
me think it was a different bird than I had seem ten minutes previously on the
other end of the building.
When I checked the list serve later in the day, and in the following days no
one was reporting more than one Rufous. I started to think I really had seen
the Black-chinned and had misidentified it. Now with the report of a second
Rufous, I don't know what I saw, but there seems to be a possibility there were
two Rufouses even at this early date.
Bill Cross
Arlington
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
