Date: 4/19/24 6:42 pm From: Jim Chiropolos via groups.io <jnc...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] Vollmer migration notes and reflections on Calliope hummingbirds
Notes on Migration from vollmer peak and Calliope
Like most birders, I look forward to spring migration. This has been a slower than usual spring borne out by analysis of my home patch ebird lists where I have probably only seen 40 percent of the “most interesting migrants” to date compared to previous years. Why? Some days the last week, 900,000 plus birds have been reported by BirdCast in contra costa county during the night so birds are moving. Some of my speculation is
* Many of the birds migrating in Birdcast daya are shorebirds or ducks as the numbers are not species specific.
* Many of the songbirds birds migrating in Birdcast may be birds flying out if the county. The 40 plus golden crowned sparrow flock has gone down to 10 or less birds the last week. Pine siskin numbers have similarly dropped (although I think this may be partly explained by siskins changing from feeders to feeding on oak seeds)- but maybe they are relocating in the night.
* The weather- until last night it has been blue skies- no weather event like fog to concentrate birds.
* Other….
Historically- migration at my house is best when there is the right amount of fog - not too much,but enough to create a hole in the fog above my house at Vollmer Peaks east side. When the fog moves in from the west, it is blocked by the mass of Vollmer peak. My house at the east side of the peak is at 1,000 elevation and often is in an amazing fog hole - the last area to be covered by fog and the first area the fog moves away from - and when my house in in the sun, but the fog is all around the house -that is when migration gets good at the house. This morning was the first day of the year that happened, and that fog hole concentrates birds at my house.
That is what we are all looking for in migration- a condition that creates an oasis that birds favor over other areas. It can be topography,(mt Diablo - a “sky “island) weather (fog and wind direction), water (why San Francisco is so good - birds will not fly over water), native plants (why I think the west side of the Berkeley hills is poor for migration - too many alien plants), and parks, or stands of trees near the coast in urban open areas (such as the poplar grove by my Emeryville office) or a combination of all of the above.
Today, when I got out of the house at 7 am, I checked the backyard sage patch where I have planted sage covering 400 square feet or so. Bingo - a make Calliope Hummingbird was working the sage. I see one here most years. They are super shy, preferring to be low in the sage and very low profile compared to Annas or rufous and Allens. I got three looks over the next 20 minutes. At 7:22, suddenly a female Allens/rufous appeared saw the Calliope feeding - zoom - and it was time to bully. After that, the calliope was gone, not to be seen again. For the next hour, two female Allen/rufous types battled over the sage patch. It took them 20 minutes to decide they could both coexist on half the sage patch.
Over the years, only once have I ever seen a calliope at the house hummingbird feeders. I think they are so small they are easy to bully by the bigger hummers, do they like to work the margins of flower patches, If you want a calliope hummer in your yard, plant lots of sage and then you must be there for that short time period when they grace your garden. In my yard, with all the cat walks , I get a good idea of whats moving around as I spend a lot of time in the yard. Its one if the top east bay data bases as I have birded it almost the same way almost every fay since I first started recording sightings on ebird in 2017.
Enjoy migration - and now is when it really heats up.
Jim Chiropolos
Orinda below Vollmer
PS - one more interesting bird observation. We have chickadees that nest in a hole below the roof soffit in our house. Today, every several minutes, the adults are carrying food to the hole. I think the chicks just hatched! I think this is the earliest date ever….
