[TN-Bird] Hummingbird hiatus

From: James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>
To: Tenn Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:14:58 -0400
Dee Thompson's observation of a return of hummingbirds in mid-September 
has also been noted in Bear Run, Jonesborough, TN.
For about two weeks from the beginning of September my feeders showed 
absolutely no sign of activity and the mixture was beginning to get 
cloudy when I noticed it was going down again. This was the first time 
all summer I had put on the mis-named bee guards to keep the wasps away, 
and also the time the jewelweed stopped blooming, so I assumed my local 
birds had either migrated south or to higher elevation where the 
jewelweed still blooms.
We have that elevational kink in our migration in East Tennessee.
This week I noticed the syrup began to decrease once again and quickly 
made a new batch. I was rewarded by hummers coming by in numbers.
I am not optimistic of the fate of our local birds that migrated South 
into the teeth of two inland hurricanes in a week, even those that were 
still in the mountains when Ivan blew through. Folks in Alabama will 
have other things on their mind than putting feeders out and I'm sure 
most floral sources were flattened.
So the question is not only whether our local birds have returned, but 
what effect will these storms have on hummingbird populations next year. 
How quickly will floral sources revive in Florida? Will hummers sip 
their way around the edge of the storm damage and reach the Gulf 
somewhere in Mississippi or Louisiana instead and follow the route of 
the Western birds through Mexico.
I've been thinking a lot about the trans-Gulf migration of the 
Ruby-throated Hummingbird lately and wondering why I've never seen them 
in the winter in Cuba, Jamaica, or in the Yucatan in my winter visits 
there. Given the winter-long semi-tropical climate of Florida, why would 
they need to undertake that extra journey? Bond reports them rarely in 
Cuba and the Bahamas and casual in Hispaniola, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. 
Peterson says they are found everywhere in winter in Mexico except the 
Baja, and that they go as far south as Panama. Howell and Webb's massive 
tome on Mexican birds is unsatisfactory in this and many other areas. 
They illustrate Archilochus colubris, but do not describe it or any of 
the other migrants hummers., ergo, no range map. We still don't have a 
useful field guide to Mexican birds.
The question of the extent of a trans-Gulf migration is, I feel, still 
open. There should be many more sightings in Cuba, for instance, than a 
few strays. My feeling is that many winter in Florida, although I'd bow 
to Howard Langridge on this, and some stray into the Gulf, but the bulk 
of them migrate into Mexico by flying overland around the western edge 
of the Gulf.
Of course I overlook the work of the Sargeants in Alabama in these idle 
musings. We have much to learn about the peregrinations of the 
Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

James Brooks

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[TN-Bird] Hummingbird hiatus

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