[TN-Bird] TN-KY Winter Hummer Update / hummer misadventure
- From: "Chris Sloan" <chris.sloan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <humnet-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 17:47:01 -0600
I've updated my web page to reflect the results of today's banding
activities, plus a few changes in status:
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.sloan/WinterHummers2004.html
Portia Macmillan and I banded five Rufouses in the Nashville area today:
2 adult females in one Mt. Juliet yard, 1 immature female in Madison, 1
immature male in Joelton, and 1 adult female in Kingston Springs. We
were scheduled to try for 8 birds today, but one had left, and I was
unable to make arrangements with one of the hosts.
As for the third one...
Our last stop (which would have been our 6th bird of the day, tying my
one day record for TN winter hummers) was the Brentwood yard where we
had made two previous attempts to trap a female Rufous/Allen's. We
arrived, and the hosts said that the bird had been around regularly.
Portia and I went to get the equipment, but as we brought it around
back, the hostess came up and said she had just found the bird....in the
garage! She had been in the garage about 45 minutes earlier, and she
didn't notice the hummingbird slip in before she closed the door. She
had gone to get something for us, and heard it buzzing around. So, we
commenced trying to get the bird out, which was no easy task. Even with
both garage doors open, the bird's tendency was to fly up, so it never
would go out even with us urging it on with a broom. Keeping in mind
that it was bitterly cold today (probably never got above freezing and
the wind chill was bone-numbing), we were become increasingly concerned.
At this point, we had already decided that, being late in the day, we
would not try and band it - the priority was to free the bird and give
it ample time to recover from the stress and tank up before the coldest
night of the year so far. Fortunately, Portia remembered that she had
an old butterfly net in her car, but the bird escaped the one time I was
able to snag it with the net.
And then it got worse.
The bird flew over to a wall, and its flight started weakening - a VERY
bad sign to my eyes. It appeared to finally come to rest on top of a
water heater, but I couldn't see up there.
And then it got even worse.
The host had a ladder nearby so we set it up so I could go up and get
the bird. But we couldn't find it. We frantically started taking boxes
off the shelves and looking through them. We looked everywhere, but no
bird. At this point, I was convinced I was going to find a dead
hummingbird. Finally, after five or ten minutes of searching, I removed
a box and found the bird squished up against the wall behind it...but
she was alive. I quickly grabbed her and rushed outside, and to my
relief she quickly took off. We went back inside, and we were all
relieved to see her make a couple of lengthy visits to the feeders
shortly thereafter.
She's not out of the woods yet, with subfreezing temps and a potentially
subzero windchil forecast through tomorrow, but at least she was able to
feed repeatedly for a couple of hours before going to roost. The scary
part is that if not for the hostess going to get a small gift that she
had for me and Portia, the bird might well have died in there.
Serendipity at its best. Let's all think warm thoughts for that little
bird tonight!
Chris Sloan
Nashville, TN=20
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