Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:40:09 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Re: Baltimore County Hummer In-Reply-To: <12.1cbac88f.29d4fdc5@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed All - March 27th ties the earliest MD arrival date for Ruby-throated Hummers .. check the Yellow Book ... When Barbara and I owned a wild bird store, we encouraged our customers to put their feeders put early (DUH!). One year we had a 4/7 report and the next year one customer had a 3/27 arrival ... a male of course. I am told that from banding studies, hummers have excellent memories for feeder food sources, so even if these early ones are still bound for further north, you can get them again in later years northbound, and later in the fall when they are southbound. So ... get those feeders up !!!! They're here !!!! Phil At 06:14 PM 03/28/2002 -0500, you wrote: >The following sighting was sent to Lanny Chambers of St. Louis, MO who >forwarded it to HUMNET. > >Parkton is in northern Baltimore County west of Rt 83. >Apparently the mystery observer knows no MD birders. > >Gail Frantz >Old Hanover Rd >Reisterstown, MD > >I am the person who submitted the March 27 sighting of a hummingbird in >Parkton, MD (21120) and I wanted to email you to let you know this isn't a >hoax or a mistaken observation. My feeder, mounted from a window as it has >been for two years, is not yet up. I was standing right next to the window, >and saw a hummer buzzing around the spot where the feeder hangs. > >Then he did a lap around the perimeter of the window, as they've often done >to let me know the feeder is empty. I know hummingbirds pretty well, size, >wing speed, behavior (at least at my window!) etc. and this was clearly a >hummingbird. It looked, however, to be more consistent with a rufous, rather >than ruby-throated, although the light made it difficult to be sure. I >haven't seen any rufous at the feeder before, >although I understand they've been spotted here before. I swear to you I >would not prematurely report this unless I was undoubtedly sure! > >Assuming you don't think I'm a crackpot, what do you make of this early >observation? Anything to do with a particularly mild winter, or is that >irrelevant b/c they are guided by hours of daylight? ================================== 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================