>Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 12:06:24 -0400 >Reply-To: BILL HILTON JR >Sender: "National Birding Hotline Cooperative (Chat Line)" > >From: BILL HILTON JR >Subject: [BIRDCHAT] RFI: Color-marked Hummingbirds >Comments: To: birdband@listserv.arizona.edu >To: BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > >The first Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year put in an appearance >at Hilton Pond Center this morning (4 April 2000) and was >subsequently banded and color-marked. Thus, I am posting my annual >request for observers to be on the lookout for color-marked RTHU. >Please post and forward the following announcement to appropriate >recipients. > >************** > > --REQUEST for INFORMATION about SIGHTINGS of COLOR-MARKED > HUMMINGBIRDS -- > >Spring migration of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) >is under way in the northcentral Piedmont of South Carolina. As part >of Operation RubyThroat, Bill Hilton Jr. has been banding >hummingbirds since 1984 at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural >History near York, South Carolina (southwest of Charlotte, North >Carolina). Although the Piedmont seems NOT to be a hummingbird >migrational pathway or staging area, through 1999 Hilton still >managed to capture and band 2,120 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU), >and retrapped many of them in subsequent years after banding. > >To minimize recapture of banded hummingbirds in his pull-string >traps, Hilton is authorized by the federal Bird Banding Lab to mark >each bird from York with non-toxic GREEN dye on the upper breast and >throat. (In fact, he uses a so-called "permanent" felt-tip marker, >but the dye wears or washes off within a month or so.) Hilton also >bands RTHUs at other locations, using BLUE or BROWN dye. > >Because we know little about actual overland migrational pathways for >hummingbirds, observers are asked to report any sightings they may >have of color-marked hummingbirds during migration in the spring of >2000. > >Color-marking of RTHUs at Hilton Pond paid off in October 1991 when a >woman in Atlanta saw an "unusual" hummingbird with a green throat and >called Bob Sargent, a fellow hummingbird bander from Alabama. Bob >went to Atlanta, trapped the bird, and after reading the band number >learned it had been banded in South Carolina at Hilton Pond just 10 >days before. This was the first banded RTHU ever to be recaptured and >released more than 10 miles away from its original banding site. > >In Fall 1997, Judy Fruge of Cameron in southwestern Louisiana sighted >another "green-throated" hummingbird that was likely a RTHU banded at >Hilton Pond; this sighting further supports the idea that at least >some East Coast RTHU migrate not to south Florida but to the Texas >Gulf Coast before a trans-Gulf or Mexican overland crossing. This >bird may have been the first "long-distance" sighting of a marked >RTHU. Another green-marked bird was seen in September 1999 east of >Charlotte NC about 30 miles from Hilton Pond. > >If you see a color-marked hummer, do not attempt to trap it (it's >against federal law to do so unless you have a special permit), but >please contact Operation RubyThroat and Bill Hilton Jr. via e-mail > or by phone at (803) 684-5852. If you find a >dead banded bird, read the band number and contact both Operation >RubyThroat and the federal Bird Banding Lab at 1-800-327-BAND or via >their reporting website page at >http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/recwbnd.htm. > >Thank you for any help you can provide in taking close looks at >hummingbirds at your feeders during the spring of 2000, and please >pass this information to other persons interested in hummingbirds. A >wealth of information about hummingbirds is available at the >Operation RubyThroat website: http://www.rubythroat.org and at the >website for Hilton Pond Center: http://www.hiltonpond.org . > > >Happy Hummingbird Watching! > > >********** > >BILL HILTON JR. >"The Piedmont Naturalist" >Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History >1432 DeVinney Road >York, South Carolina 29745 >USA > >e-mail: > >Voice: (803) 684-5852 > >eFax: (503) 218-0845 > >Operation RubyThroat Website: > >Hilton Pond Website: > > >"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to >watch the sunset." > > BHjr. > >********** ================================== Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com ================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================