hummer followup

Fred granted me permission to share these e-mails on the blog, the first on August 3rd and the second on August 9th. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing this information with others. It is such good publicity for what we are doing in addition to being a remarkable record. I can't wait to see if she returns to Tallahassee this winter, that would be fantastic.

We are lucky that hummers are so loved by their hosts, they become a part of their family. This makes it a lot easier to find people willing to let us band "their" winter guests. Hopefully all this attention will increase the number of people that leave feeders up in the winter and let us know when they have a bird in their yard. Like its been said, "you never know what you'll find out when you put a band on a bird's leg"

Fred Dietrich

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I just got back from West Virginia where Bob Sargent was training new hummingbird banders. One of the birds we caught had been banded previously, but it was a different series than ones that had been used at this site before. It turned out that the bird had been banded by another member of our crew in Pell City, Alabama on September 1, 2009. That is about 500 miles SSW of where it was recaptured and it appears to be right on schedule on it's migration.

Fred

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The hummingbird in the Aug. 9th e-mail is Ruby-throated. This sort of recapture event is exciting for everyone because it does show active, annual migration that can be tracked in one individual as a representative for others of its species.