Tuesday 12 April 2011

Rufous Hummer Christens Feeder

It was still a bit breezy and cool this morning, but I thought I'd had a wander down to the gardens at Government House and see if anything interesting was lurking therein.
Before I set off, however, my first rufous hummingbird of the year appeared at my feeder - result! It stuck around for a while, and then proceeded on its merry mega-metabolic way.

On the subject of hummers, the gardens at Gvt. House certainly host a fair share of Anna's hummingbirds and they seemed to be everywhere. I even located a nest, complete with attendant female, but I couldn't see whether there were any young in the delicate cup. How protracted is this species' breeding season? I'd have thought that most would have fledged by now - do predated, or early successes, promote second broods of this early nester?
There were fair numbers of ruby-crowned kinglets around, but sadly no sign of any other migrant passerines from the south.
Among the 'resident' birds clearly engaging in the joys of spring, were American robins, song sparrows, Bewick's wrens, red-breasted nuthatches, spotted towhees and fox sparrows.
Despite the relative quiet this morning, I'm still of the opinion that this small site might well attract some interesting passage stuff in the coming weeks... I suppose only time will tell!

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