Hummingbird migration

Migration is in full swing. Here's a handsome Allen's Hummingbird at our feeders in Alpine.

Adult male Allen's

Fall migration

Fall migration is always slow. I saw a warbler today that I haven't identified yet. Here it is. I thought it was a Prothonotary when I watched it, with white undertail coverts. But when I downloaded my photos, it looked different. Maybe a different bird. It was high up in a cottonwood tree.

Other than that warbler and the regular summer nesting species there wasn't much activity. It's been really hot this month and very little rainfall. In August and September hummingbirds are numerous at the feeders. I can never resist photographing male Lucifers. They're so awesome. Click to enlarge.

The leucistic Black-chinned is still around. Here she is today with her normal-pigmented counterpart.

More new feathers for Loppy

Kelly Bryan, a licensed bander, recaptured Loppy (see July 17, July 29, and Aug 5 posts) and he now has 10 gorget feathers, but still only the one adult tail feather.

Kelly also banded the leucistic female Black-chinned (see August 3 posting). He figures it's less than a month out of the nest.

New gorget feathers

Juveniles usually aren't around long enough to be able to document the growing progress of their gorget feathers. However, this one, I've nicknamed Loppy (doesn't everyone name their hummers?) because of his lopsided gorget and one adult tail feather, is still around. I posted photos of him on July 17 and 29. Yesterday I got photos of him with a couple of new feathers. Click to enlarge. Left side has a tiny new one right below the eye. Besides the center spot, there's another new feather right below the lower mandible.

Left side

Right side

Hummer with personality

I tend to anthropomorphize my hummers. Here's a young Lucifer that is obviously confused. That's because I kept re-arranging the feeders all day, partly due to banding activity, but mostly because I was trying to get a better photo of the leucistic hummer, and when the lighting changed I re-arranged feeders. so now he's trying to figure out where the darn feeder moved to this time.

Albino (leucistic) hummingbird today

It's apparently a Black-chinned female. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Here her dark roots are showing.

This last shot is included just for size comparison.

Pre-oasis photo

I came across this photo while looking for something else. This was my oasis's humble origin. Photo taken about 30 years ago, and yes, that's me. The only thing recognizable is the mountain in the background. Click to enlarge. If I took a photo today from the exact spot this one was taken  you wouldn't be able to see the mountain for the trees.

Here is a photo looking in the same direction as my original garden, only taken from farther away. This photo taken in May of this year.