Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:16:36 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: A three hummer morning in DC In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII All three DC hummingbirds survived the cold night. I took over the vigil at Ripley Garden just before 7AM but after Jim Felley left. I was relieved by George Jett at 7:50. During my watch the hummingbird appeared about four times for a minute or less each time. It perched for about two seconds during its second visit. After that, I visited the hummingbird garden in NW Washington. Both Selasphori made appearances. The one with the large, central spot on its throat was present early and often, feeding at flowers along W Street rather than using the feeders. The other bird (with more extensive, but finer spotting on its throat) made two, brief visits to the feeder in the back yard (along Observatory Place) between 10 and 10:30, after my last sighting of the other bird. All three birds were easily identified as Hummingbird, (sp?). They did not give me good views of their spread tails nor did they perch long enough in orientations that allowed me to assess the length of their wings and relative length of their primaries. Perhaps that's for the best since it's not clear I would know what to do with the views I didn't have. I don't know if that last sentence made any sense, but it probably applies to just about everyone who has seen these birds. It will be interesting to see how many of us add these to their DC lists claiming to have identified them in the district. Nevertheless, just seeing these birds this time of year is quite a treat and is well worth the trip. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk at bellAtlantic. net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================