[Tweeters] early Rufous Hummingbirds, Tom Lamb, Dixie,

[creinsch]

For the last 22 years we have had only occasional Rufous in the yard: 
one or two in late March, and maybe three or four in August.  None 
stayed for more than a day.

This year has been very different, and we are unsure why.  There were 
several immature Rufous in June, and then on August 1st three arrived 
and stayed for a little over four days. The fighting with the Anna's was 
ferocious, and the Anna's eventually went into hiding.  Since then at 
least one Rufous appears every couple of days, and the fighting 
(bickering) resumes.

Are the weather/climate and fires up North accelerating the migration?  
I have wondered for sometime if some Rufous are completing their 
Northern migration here, and the immature are actually fledging here.  
Is there any evidence of that?

And I have a question for anyone who remembers Tom Lamb of Dixie (NE of 
Walla Walla):  Tom had house low in the foothills, where over the years 
he had assembled something like 65 hummingbird feeders around his 
property.  During Spring and Fall migrations the place was crazy with 
Rufous, Black Chinned, and Calliope, with lots of noise from the 
quarreling birds and visitors having close-up encounters.  Tom passed 
away in 2014.

The question: Does anyone here remember Tom's joke about why a sailor 
should not look up (toward the sky)?

Chuck Reinsch
Magnolia, Seattle