Although I’ve set up eBird Needs Alerts for a number of the nearby western NC counties, I don’t check them too often since there aren’t too many species reported that I still need for those county lists. But luckily I checked my Polk County Needs Alert for November 23 – it contained a report of not only an adult male Rufous Hummingbird, but also an adult male and immature Calliope Hummingbird! And all at the same feeding station! More importantly, the Calliope would be an NC statebird for me. Review of the photos posted on the eBird report revealed that what was initially ID’d as an immature Calliope was actually a Rufous/Allen’s – but the adult Calliope was still a good ID.
As is often the case for wintering hummingbirds at feeding
stations, the key hurdle to overcome in chasing after them is gaining an
invitation to visit those feeders. And
this time would be no different. The person
who first reported the birds was a bander that I knew, but he was apparently
not at liberty to invite others to see the birds. Then came reports on November 27 that birders
were allowed to band the hummingbirds, but only 1 Rufous was present. Although I’d still love to add the Rufous to
my Polk County list, I was less interested in pushing the issue since there was
no longer the potential for a statebird at the site. Or was it…
On December 3rd I got word that the Calliope was back. Now I needed an invitation to visit the home
the hummingbirds were visiting. Three
local birders accompanied the bander on the 27th (Kevin Burke, Simon Thompson,
and Vicky Burke), and I knew all three of them well. They figured out a way to get invites, so perhaps
they could get me an invitation as well.
I reached out to all three and found out that the homeowner was not
generally willing to allow birders to visit, but since she had birded with those
local birders in the past she was OK for them to come to her yard. All 3 of my friends still needed the Calliope
so they likely had an interest in coming back for another try. Perhaps I could join them. Sure enough, Vicky offered to meet me there
on the 4th. Unfortunately, I was leading
a bird walk for the NC Bird Atlas that day so was not available. As it turns out they were lucky enough to see
the Calliope on the 4th but dipped on both Rufous.
Now I had to grovel some more to try for another
invitation. Just as I suspected Kevin
and Simon wanted to see the Calliope as well, and planned another visit for
December 7th – and I could come along. The
plan was to arrive at first light to be there when the hummingbirds started
their feeding activity for the day. We
were all set – now we just needed the hummingbirds cooperate.
We carpooled to the homeowners residence and arrived just before 7 AM. Simon and Kevin pointed out that there were three feeders that the hummingbirds were visiting – one on the front porch, one on the back of the house, and one on the side. Plus, they often fed on pineapple sage flowers still in bloom in this garden near the driveway out back.
We had only been there a couple minutes before we heard the characteristic hummingbird chipping notes at the pineapple sage. It was still too dark for IDs, but we were optimistic. Then we saw one hummingbird fly over our heads toward the side yard – we were up to 2 birds. A few minutes later it was light enough to see the immature Rufous/Allen’s at the pineapple sage. And a bit later I briefly spotted the adult Rufous at the side feeder. But soon thereafter all was quiet.
Now that the initial flurry of activity was over we needed a
game plan to find the Calliope. Where the
3 feeders were located meant we could only see one at a time. So we decided to split up and each of us
focus on just one feeder. I chose the one
in the back of the house because I could also see the pineapple sage from
there. The 3 of us took up our posts and
waited for our key target Calliope to appear.
But with each passing minute with no hummingbird sightings
at all I grew less and less optimistic.
We had now been there at least 45 minutes with no Calliope even though
the Rufous were active at least at dawn.
Then Simon poked his head around the corner and said he had the
Calliope. I notified Kevin and we all
converged on the front of the house.
Simon said the Calliope had just visited the feeder on the front porch
and had flown to a small pine tree nearby.
With a bit of a search we spotted the adult male Calliope nicely perched
in the pine right in front of the trunk.
Here’s my barely passable digi-binned photo of my target bird. Sure was glad I was able to get an invite…
Calliope Hummingbird was #322 for my NC statelist. My statebird map for this species is inserted below. The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range. Cross-hatched Oregon is the only one in its regular range where I have yet to see it. And now NC is the 7th state (shaded in brown) where I’ve seen Calliope as a rarity.
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