Thursday, March 29, 2012

Hummingbird in March

Very surprised to see a hummingbird on Myrth's flowering tree yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was a Broad-tailed.  Ebird has teamed up with NOAA to produce a weekly forecast of migrating birds. The following is from an eBird feature discussing early hummingbird arrivals: 

There have been some internet reports of Ruby-throated Hummingbirdsreturning as early as mid-March to points as far north as New England, northern New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Since eBird is detecting no such movement this early, and since no corroborating documentation has been provided for these early reports, these reports could be typographical errors or even misidentified bumblebees. We do encourage eBirders to carefully note their hummingbird arrival dates and provide documentation when they find the first one in their region, so that eBird can provide useful, scientifically-defensible data on the return of hummingbirds in this exceptionally warm year. Better yet, try putting your feeders out early and see if you can help prove that hummingbirds DO move early!

So, did I really see a hummer? I'm almost certain I did, but without photographic evidence i'm likely to receive a mail or two about the sighting.

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