Some hummingbirds stay through the winter

Published 10:28 am Monday, December 7, 2009

It’s usually a surprise to folks when they spot a hummingbird in late fall or winter.

The sighting of one brought this question from Julie, in Arlington:

“We have a late straggler hummingbird still feeding all by himself and it is November … Do you think his family deserted him?

It’s possible but unlikely that it’s a straggler. The hummingbird is more likely to be an Anna’s, and so let’s proceed on that assumption.

These hummingbirds once were found only from Baja California to San Francisco, but as their population increased, the breeding range was extended to southern Vancouver Island.

Not only has the breeding range exploded, but there are increasing reports over the past decade of Anna’s hummingbirds staying through the winter. While most of the reports have come from the Seattle area, many people have reported Anna’s in Snohomish County.

Anna’s is one of four hummingbirds found in the Northwest but, so far, it’s the one usually reported. An explanation for why more Anna’s stay than the other three has not been found, at least that I know.

If they couldn’t find enough food, Anna’s hummingbirds would have headed south with the rest. But more residents have planted flowers or plants that blossom year-round, and hummingbird feeders have stayed up longer. If residents see a hummingbird in fall or early winter, they’re more likely to leave the feeder out.

When there is a lack of blossoms or feeders, hummingbirds eat spiders (and prey lodged in the web), sap from sapsucker holes, and small flying insects that they catch on the wing.

Anna’s wouldn’t stay in Western Washington without a food source. There appears to be sufficient food for a relatively small number.

This hummingbird was named after 19th-century Italian duchess Anna De Belle Massena. Her husband, Prince Victor Massena, had a collection of more than 12,000 bird specimens. A naturalist discovered the first Anna’s specimen in that collection and named it after the duchess.

Cycling kudos: San Juan Island made it into Lonely Planet’s “World’s Top 10 Cycling Routes.” The results are featured in the book “Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2010.”

That puts the island in the company of the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand; Cape Breton Island, Canada; Friuli-Venezia, Italy; Isle of Wight, England; West Coast Tasmania, Australia; Luberon and Mont Ventoux, France; County Clare, Ireland; La Farola, Cuba; and National Highway 1, Vietnam.

It’s come to this: The best-selling series of National Audubon Society field guides have gone mobile, putting comprehensive birding information at the fingertips of iPhone and iTouch users. The Audubon applications includes interactive information and more than 2,200 bird sounds.

“Mobile platforms allow field guides to be used to explore nature in fun and interactive ways that are not possible with printed books,” said Andrew Stewart, publisher of Green Mountain Digital, the electronic publishing company that created the Audubon Guide app series in alliance with the National Audubon Society.

The bird app covers an incredible amount of information on more than 700 species.

Imagine: More than 2,000 Washington Trails Association volunteers donated 90,046 hours of trail maintenance on 130 trails this year, breaking through the 90,000-hour mark.

The trails association is one of the largest volunteer trail-maintenance and advocacy organizations in the nation, leading more than 750 volunteer work parties annually throughout the Cascades and Olympics.

Columnist Sharon Wootton is co-author of “Off the Beaten Path: Washington” and can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.