â Michael W.
This year, NatureWatch welcomes reports of the first sightings of ruby-throated hummingbirds with the number seen, date, location and your name. Please email Naturewatch41@gmail.com.
In 1900, according to Birds of Berkshire County, Mass., Walter Faxon and Ralph Hoffmann (our local bird club is named after this gentleman) listed this birdâs earliest arrival as May 3. In 1999, the earliest was only one day earlier, according to Birds of Berkshire County by Bartlett Hendricks, who listed May 2 as being the earliest, and May 15 as being the average.
The earliest a ruby-throated hummingbird has been seen in the Berkshires was on April 4, 2000, (in Windsor), in Annotated List of the Birds of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, by David P. St. James in 2017. The earliest record for the arrival of this hummingbird in Birds of New England, by Edward A. Samuels, published in 1870, was rather vague â between May 15 and 25.
Q: I m emailing you because I just finished reading the piece you did with The Berkshire Eagle about black vultures last April. I was researching black vultures in Massachusetts because I saw one yesterday in the backyard in Deerfield! I was able to grab a couple videos. No one seems to be as excited as I am about it, so I figured you might be.
I was out with my chickens and though I know they prefer carrion, they can still find prey. I was in awe, they are so beautiful. I can see why they became your life bird. I don t know a lot of the terms, but I am learning. I spend a lot of time on the Deerfield River and 21 acres out there on my land admiring the birds. (Many bald eagles, mergansers, mallards, wood duck, heron .) The birds out there are amazing. I identified a yellow-rumped warbler last year, I had never seen one before.