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Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A surreal year!

 Everything is so bizarre it's like something you can't wake up from. In the last two days I thought I saw three Costa's Hummingbirds. And as much experience as I've had with the species, I didn't identify any of them in a helpful timely manner. The first adult male I submitted as an Anna's until Kelly Bryan corrected me. Then the second one, a female, I saw at the oasis this morning but didn't know it until I downloaded the photos I had snapped while rushing around watering so I could hurry back to town to look for the first Costa's. Which I haven't seen again. So I lost a chance to get a decent photo of the second one.



Then while I was trying to relocate the first one back in Alpine, I saw what I thought was a third one, a juvenile male. Turns out, that one, that I actually thought up front was a Costa's, is the one of the three that wasn't one. So I got it wrong every time.

Hope I get some good over-wintering birds this year. Quite a few Green-tailed Towhees and Lincoln's Sparrows arrived. And White-crowned Sparrows are arriving. They usually are present all winter in large numbers and keep the seed feeder cleaned out.




UPDATE: It turns out the female I was so sure was a Costa's at the oasis, isn't one, according to the experts. I'm still convinced it's a Costa's.


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