[mou] Hummingbird Update: It's a girl!

[Laura Erickson]

Thanks to additional photos yesterday of the hummingbird's rump and tail 
feathers, Don Mitchell (master hummingbird bander who did a lot of work 
with Selasphorus in California) is convinced the bird is an adult 
female.  Photos and Don's valuable comments are at the hummingbird page 
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/Birds/NovemberHummingbird.html>

I also added 18 seconds of video footage (actually 9 seconds, only it's at 
half speed).

My family is going to Florida on Tuesday, and will be gone until the 
following Wednesday.  While we're gone, my mother-in-law will be here 
keeping the feeders going.  It's a lot of work to bring them in at night 
and set them out in the morning, especially in dim light--she's 85--so if 
anyone is around to help some days, especially when it's slippery out 
there, I'd sure appreciate it.  She will call me with updates, so tell her 
if there are any new developments in the identifying process, and though I 
won't be able to update the website while I'm gone, I will be able to call 
if there is a volunteer on both lists who can bring people up to date on 
new information.

Denny Martin shot two rolls of film on her, and when those are developed, I 
will scan and add to the body of photos.

Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN


Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>


There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson