I don’t think it’s your imagination - this has been a pretty good week for Calliope Hummingbirds. I chalk it up to winds and weather being favorable to blowing them toward the coastline during their narrow migration window. It’s definitely worth checking all of our local hummingbird patches extra carefully for the next few days.
Calliopes have a very narrow window migration as they head northward from wintering grounds to their summer breeding grounds in the Sierra, Cascades and Rockies. I have seen Calliopes five times around San Francisco Bay (though they’re more common inland):
4/16/15
4/16/20
4/17/20
4/20/20
4/14/24
Calliope Hummingbirds are the smallest long-distance migratory birds in North America, if not the world - and this is really their week to pass through!
While on the subject, this is also the best week for vagrant Costa’s Hummingbirds and Black-chinned Hummingbirds - both of might be more expected inland but can show up around the Bay in migration. I’ve been checking my local Pride of Madeira (echeum) patches for the past several days - and I suspect that’s exactly what Dessi and Marty were thinking when they found the vagrant Calliope in Redwood Shores a couple of days ago.
Another bird to be on the lookout for this week is Solitary Sandpiper - which are rare in the Bay Area and mostly only seem to show up in the second half of April on migration. Check anywhere where there is a good freshwater pond with some exposed mudflat - preferably a lot of mud. I think one of the reasons they are missed most years is because the Bay Area doesn’t have much in the way of abundant fresh water ponds/vernal pools, and some years everything is dry by this time. I’ve had four Solitary Sandpipers in the Bay Area and all were between April 15 and May 3. For example I found one in Berkeley Meadow in a fresh pond on 5/2/17 which was a very wet spring.
It always amazes me that even vagrancy has its predictable patterns - though I would say that these four species aren’t true vagrants - just migrants that get blown toward the coast when the conditions are right.
Happy spring birding everyone.
Aaron Maizlish
San Francisco
> On Apr 16, 2024, at 8:01 PM, Chris Ortega via groups.io <chrisorte9a...> wrote:
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> Is it just me, or is this turning into something of a banner year for Calliope Hummingbird? With birds showing up in Monterey, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Yolo counties recently, this might be a good year to find one at a yard feeder. It's also possible I just haven't paid close enough attention in the past, but this feels unusual to me. I'd be interested to hear what others think.
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> Good spring birding!
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> Chris Ortega
> Bay Point
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