On March 11, 2022, we welcomed our first spring migrant, a female Rufous hummingbird. She remained around the yard all day, at one point sharing a very small, three-port hummingbird feeder with male and female Anna’s hummingbirds. She was still in the yard the following morning although much more scarce during the day. (Sorry about including the feeder in the photo, but you often have to take what you van get!)
On the following day (Mar 12, 2022) our first male Rufous hummingbird visited the yard, but he only made a very brief visit to the feeder, made a quick tour of the yard and then disappeared for the rest of the day.
Looking back over my spring arrival records, I see the earliest arrival for our yard was on March 2 (2021) and our latest arrival date was on March 27 (2008). And yes, they have been trending towards earlier arrivals.
The female returned on Mar 12 but spent much less time visiting the feeder. At one point I saw two Anna’s females sharing the feeder, a very unusual occurrence.
The hummingbirds are draining both of my small feeders in about a day, so it won’t be long before I graduate to a couple of larger feeders. I look forward to the time our salvia, pruned for the winter, recover and begin blooming and offer the opportunity for photos of the hummingbirds in flight.
I spent considerable time in the yard both days (Mar 11 & 12) photographing other species of birds. Our very shy male Varied thrush disappeared for two days but was back Mar 12 and I obtained some good photos. He was joined in the yard by one or more cousins, American robins. It amazes me how the robins can be so proficient at grubbing for worms! After short periods of very successful worming the Robin would take a leisurely bath in the 45-degree water!
We have a number of sparrow species in the yard. As I probably mentioned in a prior post, we are absolutely overrun with Dark-eyed Oregon juncos… and are still hosting our leucistic male for the second season in a row! I often wish for more species of birds in the yard but the juncos provide so many opportunities for beautiful photographs.
We also have several Spotted towhees and Golden-crowned sparrows, a couple of Song sparrows, at least one Fox sparrow (not pictured) and a complement (if I deign to call it that), of House sparrows (also not pictured). A few days ago we had a White-crowned sparrow in the yard for a day.
