Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 06:15:44 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bob Mumford Subject: Re: SI hummer survival MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Apparently Rufous hummers can survive pretty cold weather, as the one in Takoma Park perhaps ten years ago did with temps down to ten, as I recall. The key is proper food and shelter from the wind. The owner of the home where that bird lived out the winter purportedly contacted the National Zoo and learned to put proteins (what and how I do not know) into the sugar water for a proper winter diet. Someone probably has records of the name and/or address of that benefactor and perhaps someone else could contact him to get the details and pass them along to the Smithsonian folks who put up the feeder recently. The knowledge is available; the key is to get it in the right hands soon. Bob Mumford Darnestown ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================