Yes, it 's one of the things I love most about this part of the states. It's a
rich migratory path for most all birds, one or another. The hummer you saw may
have been an immature male. Sometimes they stagger behind by several weeks or
so.

Either way, my garden is still teaming with nectars and the monarchs and red
admirals are covering the landscape.

victoria

On Thu, 31 Oct 2002 11:42:48 -0600, "John T. Jarrett" wrote:

Saw the first hummingbird in weeks just pulled up outside my window. Skinny
thing, mostly light brown...hadn't seen one like it before. And a dove on
the back fence yesterday...they must have been running ahead of this front
we got today!

Y'all were speaking of this area being a corridor. If you look at flight
patterns, almost every single bird between Toronto and Maine will have to
fly between us and New Orleans.

I built a small wetland at Galveston for the Houston Audubon Society for the
birds that fly over Houston. With all the farming in that rich coastal land,
most of the fresh water has been filled in. These poor birds, haggard as all
get out, fly from Mexico ACROSS that corner of the Gulf, and hit dry land
with no clean water in sight with heavy salt encrusted feathers. Mind you
most of them haven't slept in a long time at this point either! They loved
that fresh water so close to the ocean.

Anyway, we really do form a pretty important part of the migrating corridor!

May your pumpkins survive the night!

John T. Jarrett
http://logontexas.com