Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!unify!magpie!grp From: grp@unify.uucp (Greg Pasquariello) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Early migrant, and Friday Message-ID: Date: 6 Aug 90 18:01:14 GMT Sender: news@Unify.Com (news admin) Reply-To: grp@unify.com Organization: Unify Corporation, Sacramento, California Lines: 35 It seems I have a migrant already! This morning, one of the Selasphorus hummingbirds showed up at my feeder. I believe it is a rufous, but it's a female or young male, and I'm not sure yet. In the next few days, I hope to get a close enough look to determine, based on the outer tail feathers, but this is iffy. Anyway, there it was this morning, at the feeder, shooing away any of the Anna's that attempted to feed. I suspect that it is a young male, probably dispersing southward on a leisurly migration, and I also suspect that it's a rufous (as I said), because that would be much more likely in my area (Sierra foothills). It seemed pretty adamant about protecting it's newfound food supply, so I imagine it will stay around for a while. ***** On Friday, I managed to finally get some time off, and I went into the Sierra at Yuba Gap, and then down into the Sierra Valley. Yuba Gap is at about 8000 feet, and I managed to get some of the mountain species, including Mountain Quail (a lifer), White-headed Woodpecker, Mountain Chickadee, Cassin's Finch. Western Tanager. It was pretty quiet though, and I had a hard time finding birds; I guess it's the post-breeding lull. When I was through there, I headed down into the Sierra Valley, a flat plain maybe 10-15 miles across, in the middle of the mountains, and covered with Sagebrush. The first birds I saw there were a trio of Mountain Bluebirds, followed quickly by Sage Thrasher (another lifer). At a marshy area on Dyson Road, I found Yellow-headed blackbird, 2 American Bitterns, which "froze" right out in the open, a Virgina Rail, black-crowned night-heron and two trumpeting Sandhill Cranes. All in all, a pretty nice day, albeit not a very busy one. -- -Greg Pasquariello grp@unify.com