March has come and gone! It is the 27th and I have been to Arizona twice and now I am all over the garden and I am excited to see the hummingbirds coming back to town. On March 19th, I saw my first Rufous return to my yard. Now I see a male and a female hanging around...Soon there will hopefully be many more.

I was very lucky on the 24th. I captured a much better video of the courtship ritual. A female was sitting on a feeder and the male was zooming up and down right off the deck and whizzing by the feeder. At the end of his 5 tail whistles...he joins her at the feeder, chits and chats and then they zoom off.

I will post that below. I am getting better. Not perfect by any means, but better.

I have just seen a printout for Music in the Garden, Saturday, June 8 10-4 and Sunday June 9, 11-4. My house is on that self guided tour, a fund raiser for the Eugene Symphony Guild.... 

I have so many plants bursting forth and I now have stairs and a path down to the back yard so that will help a great deal. I guess I will show some pics of the new steps:

Zane built these steps out of sockeye salmon ledge stones for the risers and Pennsylvania blue stone treads. He came on an adventure from upstate New York and stayed with a friend in Eugene for a number of months. He is young, energetic, and the Corvallis Rugby team loved having him play with their team for a bit this spring. I really enjoyed him working on the steps. 

He is now on his way back to New York to work on a farm and attend school in Environmental Construction. He says he'll be back and I hope to see him when he comes this way again.

For the steps, I will show you before and after pictures cause my side yard is steep...and because I have to keep the gardens up and the hummingbirds very happy, I need a wide cart path besides. Zane made both for me. 

             

Zane (Tito on right)

        

    

 

 

Arizona has new and different hummingbirds and people

Last fall was so beautiful in Eugene. Every day was like summer and the hummingbirds stayed and stayed and ate and ate and then the Rufous birds took off throughout the month. But, the summer before, by August 15, all the Rufous hummingbirds were gone and I was still wanting 50 birds around me every day. Zooming this way and that!

I Booked a flight on Allegiant, the first week of September, and flew down to Mesa/Tempe airport (which is about 40 minutes from Phoenix). The best part is that you get on a plane in Eugene, and you get off the plane in Arizona with no layovers anywhere. It is quick and very reasonably priced.

I rented a car and I headed for Tuscon, which is less than a 2 hour drive south from Phoenix. I was headed for hummingbird country. The first place I stayed was in Madera Canyon, south of Tucson at the Chuparosa Inn. Friendly people, great hiking, cozy rooms, lots of hummingbirds and woodpeckers that looked drunk from drinking the sugar nectar. There were also all kinds of other birds there. People were running around with cameras trying to get a picture of the Trogon? I was all over the hummingbirds. They had lots of Rufous, but they also had Black Chins and Broadbills, and more.

About the Chuparosa Bed & Breakfast Madera Canyon, Tucson, AZ

Madera Canyon has its own environment. It is absolutely beautiful...The Inn environment was beautiful too. The grounds invited you to watch for different birds, take photos, read a book or chat with other folks. The owners, Luis and Nancy were a wealth of information about the area, about cameras, and pretty much everything else. Nancy was also very kind and looked at my photo cards and purchased some to leave in the guest rooms for folks to write on. She doesn't know it, but she was my very first sale. (I had just gotten them from the printer and took a sampling on the trip with me)

Nice Inn Dog!

The Next Couple Shots Are Walking Down The Road From The Inn

These feeders are hanging at a hotel down the way

Doesn't this woodpecker look drunk?










My husband and I headed over to the Sierra Vista area on the San Pedro River next. We stayed at the Casa De San Pedro Bed & Breakfast for quite a few days. The breakfasts were so good! The people staying there were going different places looking at birds and going adventuring so you could here about different places to go and share some stories.

 Black Chinned Hummingbird

To find out more about the Casa De San Pedro B & B














 




I wanted to attend a banding session for hummingbirds. They do sessions at both the Chuparosa Inn and the Casa De San Pedro B & B, but I caught the session at the San Pedro. The Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory bands hummingbirds and it is very educational.  This is where birds are feeding and a radio controlled net is lowered around them. The birds are then weighed, and checked for fat content, eggs, condition, and finally a band is added to their leg. They are then given a mighty fine drink of nectar and settled in my hand, your hand, or a willing hand. The hummingbird gets settled (or not) and then flies away. That drink before they go helps to refill their depleated energy from all that fuss. Over time, these migrating birds, return.....and if they are retrapped, their age can be identified.

To learn more about hummingbird banding--Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory

As a complete side note:

I want to say that after participating in this banding, I was able to save a hummingbird life. This fall, I helped a friend that had a hummingbird that was trapped in a skylight and was really using up its reserves. There were many dead hummingbirds in the same skylight that had not made it out. We used my super super soft net and got the hummingbird, but we had a feeder on hand. I made sure that bird got a good long drink of nectar and settled it self before flying off.

Anyway, back to the banding session. The folks here are very good at what they do. How about some pictures:

My husband holding a hummingbird until it flies off after being banded.



I then spent a few days in Ventana Canyon right outside of Tucson. Another spectacular environment and very different from Madera Canyon and the San Pedro area. I took some of my best photos in Ventana and I really liked the landscape.

Broadbilled Hummingbird

Sphinx moth

 

 

 

This recap of my trip has taken me a long time and I am going to post it, even though I know there are probably lots of little mistakes. I think you get the idea. I followed the hummingbirds out of town and down south. I know that those Rufous hummingbirds that were at my house could have passed this way on their way to a warm winter. I got a hummingbird adventure and so much more. In fact, I am getting ready to head back to Arizona again. Maybe I can say hi to some of the birds as they make their way back to see me in Oregon.

It is mating time!

I have seen the ritual dance of both the Anna's male and Rufous male when they are trying to catch the eye of a female. Since the Anna's are around right now (February) and whenever the sun comes out for even 3 minutes, the males start dive bombing, I am really going to try and capture this on video and put it onto my blog.

I caught a part of one today and I am going to try and post it.  If you want to see the scientific view and all about it in detail, get the fabulous video "Hummingbirds Magic in the Air" by NATURE. I got mine on line after seeing it on television. It is awesome. Here is the deal for Anna's. The male sees a female and wants to catch her eye. He flies up to 100 feet straight up in the air. He comes straight down at speeds up to 50 mph and at the end he curves in a J and his tail feather whistles in a very unique sound. He will do this up to 7 times and perhaps she will mate with him. Why wait for the sunshine??? Well, his head feathers that are black, turn the reddest of red and he is his most attractive.

Today, I caught the male going up, and if you listen, you can hear the whistle twice. That is it for now, but I will keep trying. I want people to know this sound so you can recognize it in your own neighborhood or in your own backyard.

Hummingbirds....Girls, Boys, Young, Old!

How do you tell one from another? There are great reference books but even then, it can still be difficult to tell a male from a female or one type from another. I have two very good books I can recommend:

1. Hummingbirds of North America
    The Photographic Guide
    Steve N.G. Howell

2. Peterson Field Guides
    Hummingbirds of North America
    Sheri L. Williamson

I will start this post tonight, but it is going to take me a few days to work out. I want to pull some of my pictures of Anna's and Rufous Hummingbirds and the males versus the females. Of course the males may have their heads turned one way or the other....and they look so different. I have pictures of other types of hummingbirds I have taken, but they aren't as clear so I will just go with what can really help.

First let me ask you this? Is there really a Santa Anna?

Let's actually begin with the identification of Anna's hummingbirds.

These 3 pictures shown above are all of the same male Anna's hummingbird. Dark green back, grey chest, black head feathers that catch the light and turn very very red.

The next picture I will show is an Anna's male molting this past fall. In fact, he was falling apart right before my eyes.

He looks kind of young and perhaps this was his first molt! 

Shown Below is a beautiful female Anna's hummingbird. Green back, grey-white belly, maybe a bit of color on the neck. 

Shown Below is an immature Anna's male in the spring sitting on the kiwi's. You can see his dark neck feathers just coming in. 

This is a nice shot of of a male Anna's versus

This shot of a male Rufous