by Riverwalk Birding Club
posted August 28, 2007
If you would like to add a little more color to your yard as the leaves start to turn, try adding a cracked corn feeder. It will also reduce your feeder bill as cracked corn is about half what black oil seeds cost and Cardinals, Bluejays, Doves and Thrashers all love cracked corn.
The 100 degree temperature days are over, so say's the weatherman, and football is here, so soon the leaves will turn color and start falling. That's when the migrants start arriving and birders start enjoying all the new birds. Birds are not the only things that migrate, many birders migrate looking for birds, Richard Schier just returned from Arizona with many stories and great bird photo's that he shares in the article below, we hope you enjoy it.
Greetings, Family and Friends, and Chatt-a-birders !
My wife Sharon and I got back into town a little bit before midnight local time (late Saturday night), after a week in Southeast Arizona.
Our "Home Base" was the Ramsey Canyon Inn, a Bed and Breakfast place above Sierra Vista, Arizona, located at the entrance to Ramsey Canyon Preserve.
We chose to go Southeast Arizona at this time based on the month of August being the peak season for Hummingbirds in that area, and, I in fact was able to photograph 11 (Eleven !) different Hummer species, of indescribable colors, shapes, sizes, and variations.
Some were migrants that were "passing through", some were residents, some could be found only at high elevations, some only at low elevations.
By "elevation", Sierra Vista itself is above 4,300 feet, and there were some places where we were above 8,000 feet.
We went with an outfit known as High Lonesome Bird Tours, run by Forrest Davis out of Sierra Vista, so we had pure "locals" to help us find bird species during the week.
It was a very small group --- 4 ladies --- myself --- and at times TWO bird guides -- Forrest Davis and, as our primary guide, a fellow named (this is his real name) Wezil Walraven ( Dutch name origins for first and last name) .
Wezil (pronounced Weasel lol) really knew his "stuff" and was a great help with my special photography requirements, i.e., sun angle, minimum limb obstructions, etc etc.
In fact, the entire group was extremely helpful, not only in spotting bird species, but in allowing me time to set up, etc, as well as noting good "angles" if they saw one. The other ladies were from Massachusetts, Texas, and Alaska.
I managed to get all my Canon equipment as well as Zeiss 85mm digiscope equipment through airport security, and I was able to get some decent digiscope pictures, especially around Ramsey Canyon Inn, but, for the most part, the situation called for extreme mobility, quickness of set-up and take down, and I found very quickly that we were going to be hiking some of the most unreal paths this fellow has ever trod !!!
(There were also a "plethora" of U. S. Border Patrol vehicles everywhere we went !)
So the large majority of Arizona pictures you will see over the next weeks and months will have been made with my good-old trusty reliable Canon S3 IS and its accompanying transverter.
I also took my Toshiba Laptop with me, and every night I would transfer the day's pictures onto the Toshiba, where I could give them a cursory evaluation, then clear my camera(s) for the next day.
By the week's end, I was very pleased to count 72 (!) new bird species that I was able to photograph. The actual total seen for the trip was above 150, but I felt very fortunate to capture the ones you shall see. Some of them I would call the "Legendary" birds of Arizona -- Get ready for Ravens, Golden Eagles, Roadrunners, Trogons, etc ........ not to mention a Tarantula or Two !!
( Note: Someone remind me later on to relate the evening a Mountain Lion appeared at the Ramsey Canyon Inn ! )
BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD
The place where we stayed had over a dozen Hummingbird Feeders stationed all over the grounds, and we had great times just sitting on the porch and watching this incredible profusion of hummers buzzing, battling, chattering, whirling, and producing a wonderful kaleidoscope of color and motion while we all gawked with our binoculars.
We also visited Beatty's, Patton's, and Mary Jo's during the week.
One Hummer that caught my attention right off was this one:
This little male had a blackish head, gossamer wings, and when he was at a particular feeder, he well-defended his territory.
But what really caught my attention -- was that the little fellow was wagging his tail back and forth like a Puppy Dog !
If you look carefully at the above picture, see him furiously wagging his tail !
A tail-wagging Hummer ... hmmmmmmm ......
Now, look carefully at his chin in the above picture ..... You can see that his chin is in fact not black at all.
And, like most Hummers, if you can catch it at the correct sun angle, magic things occur !
Corrumba ! This little fellow has a spectacular purplish neck band !!
In his book, Pete Dunne calls this neck band "amethyst" in color.
Later in the week we were at another location, and another of these little male Black-chinned Hummingbirds was hovering around a Century Plant, at exactly the right sun angle ....
A Hummer with a lovely amethyst necklace !
I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful diversity of life that abounds on this planet of ours.
May we always appreciate and protect these precious fellow creatures such
as this little Hummingbird we have just seen.
Have a Great Day !!!
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