Rufous hummingbird seen again near Millersburg

Rufous hummingbird seen again near Millersburg
                        

There is a house on a hill east of Millersburg with lots of plants and a pond and at least one hummingbird feeder that is again active in December. We used to live just down the hill, where we also kept a hummingbird feeder out late in the fall.

When a rufous hummingbird showed up in mid-October 2011, it visited feeders at both homes, delighting us, the Weavers and many other birders that came to see the rare hummer. After being banded by Allen Chartier, the hummer was soon back at the feeder. Rufous was last seen on Jan. 2, 2012. We hope it flew south for the rest of the winter.

Although it seems amazing, a male rufous hummingbird showed up this fall on Oct. 23 at the Weavers’ feeder. It was still being seen at the end of November. I will be very interested to see how long this western hummingbird stays. It has already survived an early cold, snowy bout of weather.

Ohio and Indiana continue to have some excellent rare bird sightings as we get into early December. On Dec. 2, Indiana birders at a lake watch along Lake Michigan had quite a day. All three scoters, three black-legged kittiwakes, one pomarine jaeger, a purple sandpiper and a continuing western grebe were the highlights of the day. Here in Goshen a red-throated loon was found at Fidler Pond. Although by the time I got there, it was gone.

A snowy owl was seen at least briefly in Northern Indiana, giving us hope it will be a good winter for the northern owls. A second snowy owl was photographed in Wood County, Ohio on Nov. 28.

Robert Hershberger and other birders found 15 red-throated loons and a Pacific loon along Lake Erie in Northeastern Ohio on Nov. 21 and again saw the Pacific loon and a fly-by harlequin duck on Nov. 26. Other birds reported recently included a brant, Ross’ geese, Iceland gull and eared grebe.

I was looking at my birding records recently to see how many new Ohio birds I’ve seen since moving to Indiana in September 2013. Although I have missed some birds while spending several winter months in Arizona, each year I have managed to see at least one new Ohio bird.

In 2014 there was the reddish egret north of Columbus and the wonderful rock wren in Holmes County. In 2015 I finally saw Bohemian waxwings, a bird I had chased multiple times with no luck over the years. That was an excellent year with a great cormorant in Cleveland, curlew sandpiper in May and the Swainson’s warbler near the Holmes/Wayne line.

The following year (2017) was even better: calliope hummingbird, sooty tern, neotropic cormorant and long-tailed jaeger. And 2018 saw the gray kingbird show up near Dayton. This year a tropical kingbird, a sharp-tailed sandpiper and a limpkin all stayed around long enough for me to see.

It has been wonderful to be able to not only see new birds in Ohio, but also to see old friends and make new ones. That has been the case for every one of the new birds added over the last six years.

Good birding.

Bruce Glick can be emailed at bglick2@gmail.com.


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