What's Up With the Wandering Hummers?

According to the Morning Sun, a newspaper in Mt. Pleasant, MI, a rufous hummingbird was seen this week in that part of Michigan. That's pretty amazing since rufous hummers usually hang out between Washington and Alaska. The sighting was documented by a hummingbird researcher.

For the second year in a row, an Allen's hummer was at a feeder near Knoxville, TN, in October. This was verifiable because last year the little bird was banded while in Tennessee. Allen's hummers have a very small, narrow, breeding range along the cloud-shrouded Pacific coast from southern Oregon to southern California. They have both a migratory race that winters in a small area in central Mexico and a non-migratory race that winters in California. So why is this bird in Tennessee?

In the last two months more than 60 western stray hummers have been found in Pennsylvania according to the Lehigh Valley website. Most sightings have been rufous hummingbirds that breed from the Pacific Northwest up into Alaska but there have also been three surprise species, all three of which have been found in the southeastern part of the state. A Calliope was in a backyard near Philadelphia, then on Nov. 10 a black-chinned hummingbird spent one day in a yard north of Levittown, and this week there is an Allen's in a yard near Pipersville in Bucks County.

Is it that there is a shuffling or ranges within the hummingbird world? All of these areas are in the normal ruby-throated hummingbird summer habitat. Or are we just becoming more aware of hummers? Imagine the thrill of seeing a "foreign" species in your yard outside the regular "season". What fun!

Hummingbird fact for today: Never say ALWAYS or NEVER when talking about hummingbirds!

Winter Doldrums

It had to happen. A major winter ice/snow storm is forecast for this week. Temperature won't be above freezing for several days. It's bad enough feeling "trapped" because the roads are bad, but we also live in constant dread of the electricity going off. Since most everyone at the Lake has a well, this means no water in addition to no heat or light. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the forecasters are way off the mark.

Terrie got rid of that pesky tooth last week. She's still hurting some and her jaw is still swollen a little. She doesn't handle annoyances well, and this annoyance is getting very tiresome for her.

On the bright side, things fell into place this week for a trip to California in March to see my son and Terrie's mom. We were accepted into three shows along the route. We're really looking forward to this extended road trip. And we think we'll do pretty well at the shows. A new wholesale account opened up this week. Oak Creek Canyon in Scottsdale, AZ, will soon have Ozarklake hummingbird feeders in their two stores. So although the weather is depressing, we have something to look forward to and have a reason to be busy creating.

Hummingbird fact for today: Though the smallest of all North American hummingbirds, the Calliope hummingbird migrates over the immense distance between Mexico and western Canada each year.