Hummingbirds

["Rick Fridell" <rfridell at burgoyne dot com>]

Hello,

This afternoon (4/16) we had an adult male Rufous Hummingbird visiting the
penstemons in our front yard (but ignoring the feeders) at Canyon Ridge,
Hurricane. This is the first Rufous Hummingbird I've ever seen in Utah
during spring migration.  They typically show up around the first of July
and 'rule' the feeders during late summer, chasing off the Black-chinned and
Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. With that said, it was interesting to watch the
Costa's Hummingbirds chase the male Rufous.  The Costas are typically quite
unassuming, and mostly ignore the numerous Black-chins and Broad-tails,
however they were very aggressive toward the Rufous. Although we have
Costa's regularly, they almost never visit the feeders, instead feeding
almost exclusively on the penstemon blossoms.
Hummingbird numbers seem to be picking up almost daily, but the sex-ratio is
still heavily tilted towards males, so numbers have not yet peaked.  The
last few days we've also had a couple beautiful Hooded Orioles visiting the
hummingbird feeders. It's shaping up to be a great spring migration.

Best Regards,

Rick and Kristen,
Hurricane, UT

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