The report of a Calliope Hummingbird in New Harbor on Saturday caused much excitement. Now, it’s causing much discussion, and even a bit of consternation – at least for me. Essentially, folks who I sent the pictures to (including the video), who know much more about this species than I do, pointed out a number of things that did not add up.

To make a long story short, here’s a list of features that are “wrong” for Calliope:
- white throat. (Calliopes should have dark stippling)
- most images show wings that appear to fall short of the end of the tail. (Calliopes have a short tail, and the wingtips extended beyond the tail).
- Dark supraloral area, where there’s a straight line of darkness between the eye and the bill. (Calliopes should show a distinctive white intrusion into the dark of the lores)
- Possibly the final straw were photos taken on Sunday morning (by Mike F.) showing central retrices (tail feathers) that are bronzy-green and tapered to a tip. (Calliopes would have mostly blackish central tail feathers, and they would appear shorter)

All of the above are field marks, not of Calliope, but of Ruby-throated. Yup, a plain ol’ Ruby-throat, it appears to be. However, it has a short tail, and a short bill – possibly both still growing on this young bird. The combination of the short tail and short bill gave the bird the small impression (Calliope is North America’s smallest breeding bird) that I saw in the field. I won’t rehash the entire discussion here, but the bird photographed by myself and another birder on Saturday evening, and the bird photographed on Sunday morning, was not a Calliope. (Of course, another bird – correctly identified as a Calliope – could certainly have been present Saturday morning and perhaps earlier in the afternoon – before I arrived. Unfortunately, we won’t know for sure what the birders saw in the am, until they return from their trip to Monhegan).

My experience with this Western species is limited to one single adult male, which I saw this winter in Georgia, of all places (as a vagrant). Therefore, I have to admit that I may have allowed circumstances to identify this bird for me. A small-looking hummingbird exactly where excellent birders reported a Calliope a few hours earlier, being observed by a number of birders who all seemed convinced that we were studying “the” bird. Ah, the power of suggestion!

I then came home, and instead of hitting the books, I hit the kitchen to prepare dinner. Then, it was time for the suffering of the Rutgers football game. A few hours of sleep, and then, it was to the Maine Marathon. Then I was off to work, and finally, by late afternoon had the time to upload the pics and write the blog. By now, my mental picture of this bird was not fresh – luckily, I always take field notes in the field, at the time of the observation, as my notes written on Sunday afternoon would not have been as valuable. Secondly, I still didn’t hit the books. While a few things did seem “wrong” to me – the white throat and the appearance - MOST of the time - of wing tips that fell short of the tail tip – I dismissed my concern far too easily.

In the evening, I got a call from a friend who was looking at the photos on his laptop while waiting for a flight. He suggested I “look again.” Then, I received an email from another friend, who didn’t think this was a Calliope either. So now, last night, I really hit the books, and I have to agree – I did not observe, nor photograph, a Calliope Hummingbird. There were two birds present while I was at the Inn, one was a “typical” Ruby-throated Hummingbird – she had a lot of pollen on her forehead, and was very obvious. The second bird I observed appeared smaller, and I believe that second, smaller-looking bird was the one that I photographed and we studied extensively. The BIG question is whether or not there was a THIRD hummer here earlier - all I know is that I only observed two female Ruby-throats.

Regardless, minus one from the ol’ state list for me – at least for now! I made a mistake. I’ve made them before, and I’ll make them again. At the very least, I learned an absolute ton about identifying fall hummingbirds.

The biggest problem, for me, however, was not taking some whiteout to my state list. The problem was I was up late again last night, - this time reading and studying. Compounded with some difficulty sleeping, I simply rolled over when my alarm went off dark and early this morning, something I almost never do. Big mistake.

An hour later, I awoke when Jeannette’s alarm went off, but groggily pulled the covers over my head. I finally began to slowly wake up. (I’m usually one of those folks who pops out of bed when the alarm goes off, albeit often begrudgingly, so this was a fairly rare event)

That’s when things started going awry. First, I heard an Eastern Towhee in the yard- our yard’s 99th species - at least one bird was on the move last night. Then, Jeannette came home from walking Sasha at Hedgehog Mountain Park. There, she had found a mess of sparrows – 200+, including a Clay-colored Sparrow at the compost heap.

I quickly motivated, and headed over, but could not find the Clay-colored. I did, however, tally 3 Chipping Sparrows, 5 Savannah Sparrows, 9 Swamp Sparrows, 10 White-crowned Sparrows, about 30 Dark-eyed Juncos, 40+ White-throated Sparrows, and at least 50 Song Sparrows.

I had a lot to do at the store today – including more evaluation of the hummingbird fiasco. Therefore, I couldn’t make up for my lost time of early this morning and head out into the field. Then, the reports began to trickle in on the birding listserves of good numbers of sparrows here and there. Then, I downloaded the radar. Crap.

10:00pm:

10:00pm Velocity image – showing a nice northeast to southwest movement.

12:00am:

2:00am. Precipitation approaching from the west. You can see the difference between the image of the echos off of precipitation and the echos off of birds (or other stuff in the air, like bats, or dust)

2:00am Velocity image. If I am interpreting this correctly, birds are on the move from the northeast to the southwest, while the rain is moving west to east. (David, how am I doing? Tell me I'm interpreting this wrong, if I am - I'm getting used to it!)

4:00am. Rain has mostly enveloped the area. Are birds still in the air over the Greater Portland area? Hard to tell . . .

4:00am Velocity. . . I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it sure is purty!

Oops. This was not a good morning to have slept in – intentionally, or in this case not. A lot of birds were on the move last night ahead of the precipitation. I doubt much would have been at Sandy Point – the winds were calm most of the night, and light northeast by morning, but the migrants traps of Portland – where I was originally intending to head, would probably have been hopping. Oh well, I can’t see EVERY migrant that passes through the state!